Hailing from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida is Def Jam/Motown’s newest singing sensation, B. Smyth. Some artists just have that IT factor, that’s the only way to describe Smyth. The hardworking young crooner has singing, songwriting and dancing skills that are nothing short of admirable and entertaining. The most shocking factor is that Smyth didn’t discover his talent until midway through high school. With the help of Youtube showcasing his covers, his fan base grew exponentially and things took off quickly. Now that he’s signed and working on his upcoming album, Smyth sat with The Source and discussed how it all went down.
Q. How did you start out singing?
I started about 3 ½ years ago. I didn’t really know how I was going to make it so I took the Youtube route and started doing cover songs and stuff like that and I was able to build a pretty big fan base. Worldstarhiphop actually picked up one of my videos as singing talent of the week and I was able to feed off of that and play off of that. I started getting a lot more followers and views. From there about a year later I ended up signing to a production company by the name of EP Entertainment. Then I went to all the labels, did the showcase thing and ended up at Motown.
Q. Why did you choose Motown?
I kind of like just looked at each one and which one I would want to be connected to for this amount of time. I just felt like Def Jam/ Motown they were really a home vibe and it was just really about me. Everything else just felt like it was so corporate.
Q. A lot of artists go through years of trying to make it; things happened very fast for you. What do you attribute that to?
I attribute that to me staying dedicating, me keeping God first and really just letting him take the wheel on it. Just staying hard working and just really staying focused on what I was trying to do and I wasn’t letting anyone tell me that I couldn’t and now I’m here.
Q. How have you handled the big changes in your life?
It’s been a little rough. At first I didn’t really get used to traveling a lot, I would fall asleep during interviews and stuff (laughs). It was hard to get that figured out but for the most part it’s been pretty good and I’ve adjusted well to it.
Q. What’s the craziest thing you’ve experienced so far?
I actually did a couple shows with Trey Songz and Miguel for his Chapter V tour and the girls were just going crazy. I saw a girl jump a gate and she had like 6-inch heels on.
Q. Who were some of your inspirations?
I was looking at people like Trey (Songz), Usher definitely was a big influence, Chris (Brown), definitely Michael Jackson. My mom kind of blessed me with the OD old school stuff so I love James Brown, Bobby Brown, Marvin Gay, Stevie Wonder, all of that. I got a pretty diverse, I like to be a sponge, I feel like to need to learn and I can learn from each and every artist that did it before me.
Q. How would you describe your music, what’s your main topic?
My main topic is usually the girls; you know I love the girls (smiles). But it’s real, I’m 21, I was born in the 90’s and I really want to be a voice for my generation. I want to be able to steer my generation in the right way. I have a song called “Letter”, cats my age we don’t really write letters, nobody really writes letters anymore. I thought it would be cool for a young dude to say it’s okay to open the door for your girl, you don’t have to be tough all the time.
Q. What are you working on now?
I have an EP releasing it’s called the Florida Files it’ll be out October 15th in Best Buy and iTunes. I’m trying to put together a tour and I’m just going to be pushing out music for the rest of the year. I think I’m going to do something else for Christmas. I’m looking to just give my fans some content. A lot of people have only heard a certain amount of songs from me like “Leggo” or the one I got with Future but I just want to give that content out and at the top of the year we gonna come with the album.
Q. You said you worked with 2 Chainz and Future, who else would you like to work with?
I’m not really so gung ho on getting so many features. I don’t want to saturate it. I want to be able to hold my own on a song, “like yo I wanna listen to this B. Smyth song” not just because this person is on it. But I’m looking, if it makes sense it makes sense, but right now I just want to do me.
Q. What do you see next for yourself? What’s your ultimate goal?
My ultimate goal is to have the #1 album in the country, to have the #1 single and just really get better. Just each and everyday just try to perfect what I’m trying to do with my craft. I take it very seriously. Yea I’m young, yea I like to chill and have fun but at the same time I do take my craft very serious so I just want to get better.
– Shaina Auxilly (@Shay_Marie)
