Scribbler's Native Tongue Mixtape Pick (Local Edition): SmCity, "Dream Cemetery"

Since my introduction to DMV hip-hop artist SmCity's music via The Indie Life LP and as one of the few local artists that I've actually seen live and shook hands with, he has become one of my favorite artists from this area, but not for the obvious reasons.  Yeah, he has a nice flow.  True, he's got presence on the mic.  Of course he has a good ear for music.  However, even these laudable qualities can't trump my overarching point: SmCity is a master at speaking from the perspective of the [grossly unheralded] independent artist and/or entrepreneur by providing the blueprint for continuing one's path toward greatness and success--in spite of the often-frustrating difficulties that anyone worth his or her weight in gold endures.  Whether it's through his Indie Life Concert Series with Twenty20 Music & Films that provides local and national artists a live platform to connect with their supporters or by way of his own music, the dude embodies what he raps.  He continues that unique ability as well as getting a bit more personal with his latest project, Dream Cemetery.  (For the record, Sm has released both a free version, which you can download via DatPiff, and a deluxe version with three extra tracks available via iTunes.  This review will be of the free version, but PLEASE support this brother.)

Dream Cemetery picks up where The Indie Life left off but with a different twist.  This time around, SmCity not only gives you "Independent Artistry & Business for Dummies", but also presents the highs and lows in pursuing one's dreams while also calling fellow artists and people in general to the carpet regarding the intentions and persistence (or lack thereof) behind their pursuits.  The first three full-length tracks--"Dream Cemetery" (produced by Say Nave), "Scared Money" (produced by Tone P) and "It's Alive" (featuring Harmony Muzik, produced by Sean Sundance)--all speak to those premises.  On the latter, he captures the essence of the music industry beast that can be applied to any walk of life: "Competition is the nature of the universe/Even the sperm is racing to see who's breaking through first."  Another "business" track courtesy of Tone P that exceeds expectations from its sheer title is "Bank Rolls".  SmCity gets in storyteller mode about the path that one twenty-dollar bill takes--touching a wide array of hands from the people who actually print the money to even his own.

However, as previously suggested, he shows his range beyond exposing industry politics and being business-minded.  While he tackles quite a few issues on the Hank Iving-produced "The Way It Is", it's his third verse recalling "the one that got away" that succinctly wraps up in this manner: "Ain't no sense dealing in the hypothetical/We need to just deal with the now, so I'ma let it go."  For an even deeper and more relatable delve, the most aesthetically awesome song on Dream Cemetery is "To Be Continued".  Blessed with a MarcNfinit-produced platform driven by a beautiful flute and the gorgeous vocals of Maimouna Youssef, Sm touches on the joys and struggles of raising children and correlating that with his own childhood: "See most times, kids are just following where you lead 'em/This is food for thought, they just swallowing what you feed 'em/And it's hard to digest, but this what's on the menu/Making sure that cycle don't continue."  In both instances, he expands his ability to make his experiences feel familiar to just about anyone.

One of Dream Cemetery's greatest highlights (no pun intended) is "Sports & Entertainment" (produced by MarcNfinit) in which SmCity and Brooklyn rhymesayer Maffew Ragazino outline how Black people often feel like taking certain career paths won't be celebrated or lucrative as much as others.  Although he probably won't ever come across as being rueful about his own journey, Sm still ponders what could've been: "Pen and pad at a stereo at night/And even if I do make it, I'm still a stereotype, sh**/Same genius could've been applied elsewhere/Could've been a doctor, could've provided health care/Man, I could've been a public defender/Or a governor that's fighting the Republican agenda."  Ragazino contributes his own experience of being "redirected": "Couldn't see past that, bad vision, cataract/Could've been an astronaut, stockbroker, NASDAQ/Fireman or officer, but I ain't tryin' to get laughed at/Masonry contractor, but I ain't want no parts of that."

Then there's the indisputable reason why you should download Dream Cemetery IMM-MEED-CHET-LEE: "American Sahara" featuring The Last Poets.  SmCity uses a metaphorical desert as his canvas to paint how many of us Black folk have the tendency to fall for what we think we see--especially as it pertains to obtaining our part of the "American dream".  MarcNfinit's production work alone is soulfully epic.  The title on its own merit should be enough to draw in the unsuspecting listener.  However, it's SmCity's ability to bring simple profoundness to his desert analogy that does it:

It's barefoot on the hot sand, seeing mirages/How many n*ggas you know dream of being an artist/Probably gon' end up sitting there retrieving the garbage/Tell me you n*ggas don't see these mirages/He thinkin' that he gon' play for the Chargers/And he probably gon' end up facin' some charges/Then I'm staring in the faces of the martyrs/On these posters on my wall, man, I'm supposed to want 'em all/And y'all supposed to wanna ball/Man, they'd rather have you n*ggas in Paris/Than back home with your brothers so you n*ggas could share it/And if you said it, then n*ggas would hear it/Then they would repeat it 'cause n*ggas is parrots/Y'all the closest thing to a lot of these n*ggas' parents in this n*gga Sahara...

To think that 1) that's not even the entire verse, 2) he says all of this before The Last Poets drop knowledge on you, 3) he spits another great verse, and 4) writing out this excerpt does the verse no justice because it sounds so much doper in real time.  "American Sahara" on its own merit is enough to quench the listener's thirst for real rap in a desert full of water salesmen that have more wolf tickets than high quality H2O for sale.

Although Dream Cemetery is not absolutely flawless--"Get Low" and "Lock & Load" are listenable, but not as repeat-button worthy as other tracks--it is an honest and encouraging effort from a lyricist who is just that.  I'm sure that SmCity doesn't feel like his dreams are completely fulfilled.  No one ever should rest on their laurels and think that there isn't always more work to do--whether you're an artist or one of the people he said he could've been in "Sports & Entertainment".  However, anyone can draw inspiration from his relentlessness in not only ensuring that his dreams aren't prematurely pushing up daisies, but also in his consistent push for each of us to give life to our own dreams.

For more information on and to follow SmCity, please visit http://smcitymusic.com and http://twitter.com/smcitymusic.