Smino on 'NØIR' Success: "I Just Wanted to Add a Little More Fun"
The St. Louis upstart also lists his favorite films and his late-night television debut.
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For the latest entry in our Conversations With interview series, HYPEBEAST linked up with Smino to take a look back at his incredible NØIR project that dropped last year, growing up a movie buff while running through his favorite films, and making his late-night television debut.
After a breakout 2017 with his debut album blkswn, Smino has been one of the most consistent artists in music. The St. Louis-born talent continued his momentum in 2018 with fresh new hits such as “New Coupe, Who Dis?” featuring Mick Jenkins, “TenderHeaded” with Cam O’Bi and “Khlorine” with Sango. By November 2018, the Zero Fatigue founder released NØIR, a stellar 18-track album that can be played front to back, without any skips.
“I wanted to make a mixtape when I was making NØIR, [but] my ni**as was like, ‘bruh this don’t sound like no mixtape’ and I was just like, aight bet,” he shared. “I was just working on some whole another shit and I just flipped the script. I just wanted to have some more fun with it. I wanted to make some music where at the show, it’s just fun.”
The result was critical acclaim across the board on most music publications. Guest appearances on the project included Bari, Jay2, Dreezy, Valeee and Ravyn Lenae. Most recently, Smino was featured on Pivot Gang’s You Can’t Sit with Us album, which dropped in April.
