Who is Smartzee ?
“Life is music, music is life”, this is the motto of french-american multi-talented music artist Smartzee.
Born in 1980 in Benin (Africa), Smartzee got the opportunity to experience different cultures as he moved at an early age from Africa to the USA and later at the age of 10 to France and now living in Switzerland.
A “globe-trotter” as he defines himself, he absorbs people's cultures and ways wherever he goes. Smartzee is far from only being a rapper, he represents the new generation of artists, who skilfully mix different sounds together with a steady open ear and so he’s able to lay his vocals and lyrics on any type of music.
You can hear Smartzee flowing on Gilles Luka's pop-rock and house music album (Galleon “so I begin”, www.myspace.com/gillesluka), delivering an astonishing verse on the remake of Cindy Lauper's “time after time”.
Back in Los Angeles Smartzee got introduced to legendary producer Fredwreck ( www.myspace.com/fredwreck ; Dr Dre, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg, Hilary Duff, etc.) directly . From then on a collaboration and friendship started, leading Smartzee to meet icons like Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Cypress Hill, Eminem, etc., which further developed Smartzee’s skills and views of the music industry. From this collaboration and also his own background you can hear the westcoast influence in his rap.
It was on the release of the single “Et c’est parti” of french rnb singer Nadiya, where Smartzee unveiled his talent to the masses by an electrifying rap-feature on the song. The record came out in Europe in 2004 and quickly sold half a million copies and was labelled french most broadcasted song on worldwide radios in 2005.
With the success of the first album, the record company Columbia asked Smartzee again for a new record with Nadiya the year after. This very song “Tous ces mots” then came out in 2006 and reached gold status in 1 month, setting the album to platinum sales.
A coincidence?...I don't think so!
Smartzee excels at everything: From writing songs for singers and rappers (co-writer of Clara Morgane’s song “nous deux”, co-writer of several songs of Nadiya, etc.), to producing new talents (producer of swiss rapper CFA with “On fait bouger les coudes” as a first release), to composing songs and beats and hosting parties in the famous VIP Room club (St-tropez, Paris),opening for Madonna at Bercy venue (Paris, France), he simply leaves nothing untouched.
Let's take it to the next level together, come on a ride with Smartzee... the time is now!!
