1, came out in 2016, heralding the arrival of a full-fledged, game-changing superstar.
Her first mixtape, Gangsta Bitch Music Vol.
#CARDI B RHYTHM AND FLOW SERIES#
From her assailing, punchy style of one-liner rap to the addictive sound of her mischievous laugh, the Bronx native is truly incomparable.įirst finding fame in 2016 as a fan-favorite cast member on VH1’s reality series Love & Hip-Hop, Cardi leveraged her popularity on the show and on social media into a blockbuster music career. “I have no doubt that you are well on your way to being a superstar.There is no one, absolutely no one, quite like Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar – or as you probably know her, Cardi B. He was met with a standing ovation and a showering of praise from each judge: “You don’t necessarily believe that in a workspace like this, you’re going to find someone you ‘believe in’ believe in,” Chance the Rapper told him. In the season finale, Smoke performed a new song, “Last Supper,” in front of a live audience, in which he showed off his jazz chops on piano before re-staging Jesus’s last meal with dancers and delivering a tense verse about friendship, loyalty, and the struggles of communal uplift. “But I knew that a slow song was going to be a creative advantage in the end, because it would stand out as a change of pace.” “I knew that it being competition-based, so many people are going to be like, ‘Bring the energy!'” he said. “I’m on my bike, I shouldn’t have to answer those questions.”ĭ Smoke’s poignant video, “Let Migo,” pushed him into the samples round, in which he flipped the funky George Clinton classic “Atomic Dog” into a contemplative jazzy ballad-a risky decision, especially given that most of his competitors specialized in catchier and more exuberant forms of rap like trap or drill. “The cop was completely out of protocol because I wasn’t breaking any laws,” he said. He also recalled a time when he was pulled over by a cop and interrogated while riding a bike through the neighborhood. “Inglewood is not a large community-somebody always knew the victim,” D Smoke said. D Smoke’s hometown, Inglewood-a city of about 110,000 in Los Angeles County-has has faced scrutiny for a recent history of police shootings-and recently received a backlash after the Los Angeles Times reported that the city was destroying its police records of shootings. “We shared that frustration immediately.”Īfter a tight face-off, D Smoke beat his friend-and in the next round, he impressed the judges with a music video condemning police brutality. “For them to pair us up, we felt like, ‘This is an unfair battle,'” he said. In the battle round, he faced a major test when paired up against the rapper Old Man Saxon, who had also had decisively won over the judges with his unique swing-influenced and verbose approach. And then, what do you do in the studio when you get to create from scratch with a producer-and how do you represent your hometown? Are they going to come out to support you on short notice?”ĭ Smoke aced the initial audition–despite Cardi B insulting his outfit and Snoop Dogg trying to rattle him-and moved calmly through through the cypher round. “I like the way they incorporated all the different elements: standing up for yourself in the cypher, holding it down in the battle. “When I found out that they were doing auditions, I was in the classroom and I shared the opportunity with my students-and they encouraged me to go for it,” he said.ĭ Smoke was initially skeptical of the concept, especially given that existing hip-hop shows either focused on lifestyle ( Love & Hip Hop) or rap battles ( The Rap Game.) “I asked a lot of questions prior to agreeing to doing the show because I wanted to make sure it allowed for true artists to shine,” he said. Last year, D Smoke was working at the High School For Recording Arts in Los Angeles-where he taught music engineering, English and financial literacy-when he learned about an opportunity to appear on Netflix. “And being a thoughtful artist and having a very specific story and a commitment to my community, sometimes it feels like that road is longer.” Seizing an opportunity “I didn’t want to compromise certain values just to get quicker looks prematurely,” he said. D Smoke also co-founded Woodworks Records, an independent label, with his uncle a 2011 video shows D Smoke singing a Stevie Wonder song with his family.ĭ Smoke said that while he strived for mainstream success, he sometimes felt at odds with the industry’s demands. While D Smoke held down a day job, he continued to write music for other artists, record his own mixtapes, and perform with his brothers in their group the Woodworks-which opened for Kendrick Lamar at West Hollywood hotspot Whisky a Go Go in 2011.
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