Pioneering New Orleans rapper Tim Smooth died yesterday (Tuesday 26th 2011) at the young age of 39, after a long battle with cancer.
Though not a household name outside of New Orleans and circles of New Orleans Rap fans, he was one of the undisputed pioneers in the city's scene. Like a hip-hop Zelig he seemed to exist in the eye of the city's musical storm, never to break out nationally but always respected by musicians around him. In a violent era that saw many of New Orleans' musical talents cut down at a young age, Smooth collaborated freely and frequently with members of warring camps, always appreciated and always relevant. It was with especially cruel irony that Smooth, a rapper gifted with both lyrics and flow, was felled by cancer of the mouth and tongue.
Tim Smooth was born Timothy Smoot west if New Orleans in the Kennedy Heights area of Waggaman, on the West Bank in Jefferson Parish. He took the title “the Knight from Kennedy Heights.” and began
Monkey on the D$ck’s image of to be-thonged girls with bullet braces and war helmets facing a large, irradiating, disembodied chimpanzee visage is on a level of bizarreness all by itself. Befitting the rapper’s stature, the album is itself incredibly short – just 21 minutes long and, as with many of Cash Money’s independent-era records, sounds like it was recorded in a single, lazy afternoon. The album's opener, “Manny Fresh (Cash Money Style)” doesn’t even feature her. There’s also a radio version of “Monkey on the D$ck,” another bounce classic, “Charlie Whop!!,” the wordless “Soldier Chant,” and “Magnolia $horty” (featuring BG and Juvenile).
