Smino

One Liner: Singer/rapper leaning more to R&B soul than hip hop.

Wikipedia Genre: Hip Hop, neo soul, R&B, electro-funk
Home:  St. Louis

Poster Position: 12
Day: Saturday at 3:30
Both Weekends.

Thoughts: There are times, when listening to all of this music and writing up my ruminations, that I realize just how old I am.  Some of the musical taste of the world is just straight up passing me by.  I get that this guy has a good singing voice, but I just don't really care for this style of R&B singing/semi-rapping.  It isn't terrible, I just would rather not listen to it as I make my way through a full day of his music.  When he raps, I enjoy it pretty well though.

This guy (real name Christopher Smith Jr.) takes soulful tunes - kinda funky, kinda jazzy - and mainly sings over them, but sometimes throws in some raps (or vocals that combine the two, singing without much variance in the notes, so that it works the same way as rap).  Only one real album, 2017's blkswn, and then a handful of singles reaching as far back as 2014's "Smellin Like a Re-Up."  The most listened to track is the title song from that 2017 album, with 11.2 million streams.

You know, that laid back beat is kinda cool.  And the vocals kind of make me think of Anderson.Paak, who I like.  So like I said, this isn't terrible, but after listening to this one type of thing all day, it gets less enjoyable for sure.  The second most listened to track has T-Pain on it, which I can't abide, so I'll give you third place, the title track and opening song to the 2016's blkjuptr EP, which has 8.9 million streams.

I wonder how he decides when to use vowels and when not to use vowels?  Seems to me that the "u" he tossed in that song title breaks with his convention/method of dropping vowels.  Was that just a typo?  Is he just messing with me?  Is he like ScHoolboy Q and, instead of the H, he truly, madly, and deeply loves the "u"?  Did he go to the University of Miami?  I have questions.  Again, that track is OK.  Not amazing or anything, but just fine.  You can read through the lyrics too, and while nothing in there stood out like MUST QUOTE stuff, there are some clever couplets in there.

I doubt I'd go out of my way to go check this out.  But if you are into alt R&B stuff, go get 'em.