The aforementioned is an accurate description of the dynamic and charismatic duo on a meal-ticket mission from downunder especially considering that up until the release of their freshman cherry bomb, Crash The Party, there was no rap scene worth mentioning in Orlando. Rodney Bailey and Robert Campman are Smilez and Southstar, respectively. Their homegrown Cinderella story is what ghetto dreams are made of and plays like a song by two of the most influential rhymeslangers from Queens to ever check and wrecka mic on wax; the story where two emcees roll out in a Cadillac, rhymes so def they never look back. But behind any successful gate-crashing lurks the identifying stress marks of struggle and self-determination.
Two years ago/A friend of mine…
“Orlando is definitely the next scene to blow,” Smilez, the Bronx-born yin of the yang, declares emphatically. “There was always an underground scene, so underground you didn’t know about it unless you knew somebody.” I’m preoccupied wondering whether a tree makes a sound if nobody is around to witness its fall when Southstar cuts in sagely like DMC. “You got the same characteristics of any city. There’s talent. We just trying to open doors and bring light on our city like Nelly did for St. Louis.”
I can dig it, but remains to be seen whether skeptical heads outside of Orlando can. If the logjam in my mailbox is any indication then a lotta people can-and are-digging it, most significantly in the sunshine state. The other sunshine state, Smilez informs me before I even begin to get it twisted. “We played over on the west coast and they love us. We did three joints and had them standing up by the second, wildin out.” Southstar acknowledges that although it’s a blessing to even be in New York City on the tail end of an exhaustive and enlightening promotional tour that’s taken them to all four corners of the country, they realize the journey has just begun. “It’s not on a local scale anymore, now it’s national, competing with some of the best emcees. I relate it to me playin ball all my life. People that never seen me might be like, ‘He caint ball.’ When I get out there all I gotta do is prove myself. That’s what it’s all about.” Spoken like a true-blue boss playah with his mind on his money and his money his mind.
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“I got into street teams, started learnin the business and wanted to get more involved. Ten percent of it’s fun, ninety percent of it’s business. A lotta people think it’s fun and games. It’s a straight job.” Smilez agrees, proffering more insight into the chemistry, for all of its contrasts, that enables them to mesh so effectively as a unit. “I hooked up with a lotta people, grindin out, goin to studios, makin songs, sendin demos all over the place. I think grindin got me here.” Put that on their management, StreetDwellaz, the aggressive promotional team of brothers Gilbert and Alfonso Alvarez that serves as one-half of the driving force behind the locomotive highballing down the freeway toward the gates of commerce. Veteran producer Dafari (N’Sync, O-town, LFO) is another integral component, Smilez maintains. “Dakari has a new fresh sound. Everybody’s gonna be checkin for him in a minute. He’s on another level the way he thinks. We got with Dakari knockin songs out. We had fifteen joints with no deal. Al and them decided, Let’s press some vinyl. We sent it to Fort Myers and it started bubblin there getting forty spins a week. ARTISTdirect came in.”
The car drove off/And we never came back…
It sounds too good to be true even for Disney World, that is, until I ask StreetDwellaz chief Gil Alvarez if he believes the hype. He drops such a radically simple interpretation as to demand an immediate re-evaluation of the timelessly classic folk tale of the poor princess grindin to make her come-up a stark-raving reality. “Our thing is, don’t take no for an answer. It starts in the streets and people gotta feel it. We took it to Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, Tallahassee, we surrounded the state.” Talk about determination, they’re raisins in the sun. Gil explains that it was their resourcefulness and self-determination to mobilize word of mouth that impressed former Interscope luminary Ted Field into lending them the keys to his hog. “ARTISTdirect came aggressive, one of the reasons why we wanted to do business. You gotta have staff that believe in the project and can break a record. On top of aggressive promotion you got a distribution company that puts the product everywhere. Those are key things.”
Since the release of Crash The Party nearly a week ago Smilez & Southstar have been asked by Billboard to serve as presenters for their music conference and awards in Miami in early August, before they head back out on tour.
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Oh yeh, it don’t stop-it won’t stop-and it don’t quit, especially when you on a mission.
