![]() ![]() In the early 2000s, he secured a number of guest-starring spots on television shows including CSI, Boston Public, and Judging Amy. If he has his way, D Smoke’s belated success will not be relegated to music. His follow up album, War & Wonders, deepens Habits’s grooves, further establishing D Smoke as an expert in terms of song structure, narrative writing, and vocal dexterity. ![]() Last year, his debut album, Black Habits, was a surprise Grammy nominee for Best Rap Album, alongside Royce da 5’9”, Alchemist & Freddie Gibbs, Jay Electronica, and Nas (who won for King’s Disease). ![]() That streaming notoriety, combined with a series of songs that highlighted his ability to mine his own life for dramatic tension and move seamlessly between English and Spanish, earned him an enthusiastic fan base. That changed virtually overnight when D Smoke won Rhythm + Flow, the Netflix hip-hop competition series judged by Cardi B, T.I., and Chance the Rapper. But for a long time after, D Smoke’s own songs were not heard outside his immediate community, or the classrooms in which he taught. Some early success-shortly after high school, Farris signed a publishing deal alongside his relatives, including the now TDE-signed SiR, and penned “Never” for Jaheim-teased the young artist with the possibility for more. Before breaking through to a national audience in 2019, he had worked quietly for years, honing his skills as a rapper and producer while holding down a job as a music theory and Spanish teacher. “My one rule is I don’t start writing a verse until I’m in love with the first line,” he tells me. Daniel Farris, the 36-year-old Inglewood native better known as D Smoke, has had to learn to be patient when waiting for the perfect opening. ![]()
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