![]() He’s also much more politically and socially aware than Kendrick was at a similar point in his career. ![]() Smoke’s flow is tighter and more uniform, and lyrically he’s prone to bursting into fits of Spanish throughout his more grounded verses about family, heritage, and social order. But while D Smoke and Kendrick share similarities, there are differences as well. Furthermore, there’s even a more personal connection between the two: Smoke’s brother is the soul singer SiR, who is signed to the same label as K. Both rappers love to employ intricate cadences, densely-packed rhyme schemes, gymnastic wordplay, and murky, midtempo beats. Black Habits not only deserves to be mentioned among them, it might just be the strongest and most focused of them all.įrom the beginning, it’d probably be natural for listeners to draw comparisons between D Smoke and another West Coast rap stalwart, Kendrick Lamar. The last few years of so-called debut albums from rap artists - really, the culminations of years, sometimes up to a decade, of independently produced projects and steady improvement - have seen some truly stellar releases. That release, Black Habits, arrived this past Friday and D Smoke’s “debut” album aptly fulfills the high expectations set for it by his Rhythm + Flow win - then, it surpasses them. When I finally gave in and checked out D Smoke’s autumn 2019 mixtape Inglewood High, I wasn’t just pleasantly surprised - I became obsessed, to the point I greedily looked forward to his next release. Not that I suspected a scam or thought that a legitimately good, insightful, viable artist couldn’t come from a reality show - but as my colleague Andre Gee astutely pointed out, historically, these shows haven’t always valued legitimate musical talent as much as they have so-called “trauma porn.” Many shows in the reality competition vein often award the most compelling - read: trauma-filled, heartbreaking, or otherwise pitiful - personal narratives and rarely have these success stories panned out. ![]() I’ll be honest: When I was informed that the winner of Netflix’s rap competition reality show Rhythm + Flow was a 34-year-old Spanish teacher from Inglewood named D Smoke, I was skeptical. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year.
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