Smiff

“People look at me and say I’m successful and on my way to a good life, but I feel like I’m living it wrong if I’m not in the rap game.”
See, that’s Smiff. He doesn’t care what people think he should do. He goes against the grain and forges his own path, using hip hop as both the vehicle and the destination. At 24, the Mississauga native is a home owner, college graduate and former high school and university star athlete, who raps. He’s now embracing the latter and while it might sound crazy to some, Smiff is walking to the beat of his own drum and loving it.
?Growing up in Mississauga, Smiff’s early identity was dominated by athletics. He describes high school as “a blurr,” only recalling sports-related memories: games, practices, plays and after parties. Going from baseball to basketball to track & field, he’d practice to the sounds of Lil Wayne, D-Block and Jay-z, before ultimately landing a full scholarship to Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas.?
As he began to find his way away from home, lyrics started entering his consciousness more and more. In between practices, games and classes, he’d pen brief “freestyles” over popular industry beats in hopes of impressing his uninterested roommate. Smiff figured if he could get this guy’s attention, it’d be a good start. 13 roughly recorded songs later, the roommate was a fan, but Smiff’s time at Lon Morris was over. After a brawl with the school’s basketball team, he was disciplined and eventually would decide to transfer to Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) in Indiana, PA. There, he fit like a glove and continued to thrive academically, athletically and lyrically for three years until graduation.
 ?“I came home after graduating hell bent on figuring out where I stood with this rap shit,” says Smiff. “The minute I had enough money, I bought a professional mic and hooked up with DJ Damaja.”
Despite his love of hip hop, Smiff was always looking into a world he felt excluded from. After all, a well off, college graduate from the suburbs isn’t exactly a popular hip hop archetype is it? But as Smiff matured as an MC, he realized he’d been through moments that people from a variety of backgrounds would relate to. Smiff felt he still had an interesting story to tell. In October 2010, Smiff travelled to Atlanta’s AC3 Music and came face to face with a whole new world. Networking and soaking in the industry, he spent 5 days in Atlanta and felt part of something. Hip hop finally felt real and he came home on a creative tear, immediately getting back to work recording Freshman 15. The eye-opening experience in Atlanta gave him the push he needed to step out and finally create an all original project of his own. He’d release Freshman 15 just a few months later.
?Smiff is currently working on a new project and looking forward to making a splash.
?“Especially with the work I’m doing for this new project, it’s my entrance into the ill jam that is the music industry ,” says Smiff. “The world is about to get introduced to me.”