Back in June of 2011, the world was introduced to someone who is accepted around the globe as the greatest rapper alive… That man is Camboi Smif. I’m sure we all remember 2 years ago when we were raving in all the hottest dance clubs to many of Camboi Smif’s hit songs, like Dem Binary Numbas, Summer Sucks, and Breakfast. In May of 2012, I’m sure we all remember waiting in line outside of our favorite local record store for hours (even days for some of us) awaiting the midnight release of Camboi Smif’s debut album, Straight Outta Hell. But most vividly, we remember listening that album and thinking to ourselves, “This is really terrible. The lyrics are stupid, he’s rapping off beat, and I would have rather killed myself than have spent my time and money on such a terrible CD.” Immediately after this realization, we all stopped listening to Camboi Smif entirely. In fact, the world’s sudden mutual hatred came together and formed some sort of living entity which made us all forget who Camboi Smif even is.
Well, I’m here today to tell you that Camboi Smif is back with a brand new album – and this time, it’s worth a shit. His new second studio album is titled Rachie, named after his high school English teacher. The album consists of 18 tracks, as opposed to the 15 on Straight Outta Hell, and it features other rappers such as Anroo, DJ Koppa, Spooky McNasty, Dawkness, Wick Yeah Alright, DK Trip, Dyno, Q&A, Lil Dijonnaise, Madison Brendle, and Alsacia Lewis. And guess what, you guys? I was bestowed with the duty of sitting down to discuss the new album with the man, the myth, the legend – Camboi Smif.
Q: So tell me – what’s it like being Camboi Smif?
“It’s like a damn blessing. I wake up every morning, look at myself in the mirror, and give thanks to Satan that I wasn’t born with any disabilities. Or even a regular ass person like you. I’d probably have committed suicide by now if I even had to drive my own car for 2 seconds.”
Q: Yes. Being a mortal is no cakewalk for sure. What can you tell us about this album that differentiates it from your previous one?
“The biggest thing is the quality of the audio. See, I produce my own shit. Back when I did Straight Outta Hell, I didn’t know nothing about audio editing. Even now I still have a lot to learn. But at least now I know how to properly use equalization, reverb, track compressors, and even dual-channelling the vocal tracks. The songs sound clean… not lyrically though.”
Q: Of course. Do you ever use the F word in this album?
“You’ll see.”
Q: Besides audio quality, would you say that Rachie is much better than Straight Outta Hell content-wise?
“Obviously this is my opinion, but yes – much better. The lyrics are more complex. The only downside to that, being a comedy rap album, the humor is a little more subtle most of the time. Personally, I like that though. On the surface, a lot of these songs sound like legitimate songs. But when you listen to and comprehend the lyrics, it’s very obvious that I’m joking like I always have been. I definitely had a voice in the back of my head the whole time I was making the album telling me some people might start thinking I got serious on them with this one… But no. Never. Not even the one serious track (Apologies) is serious.”
Q: In the past, you’ve worked on a lot of songs with Anroo, and even one or two with DJ Koppa, Wick Yeah Alright, Dawkness, and Spooky McNasty (formally known as Kenjamin). What was it like working the the others that you’ve never worked with before?
“Pretty much everyone I featured did great. They made me look bad [laughs very briefly and then makes a straight face and stares at me in silence for a good 45 minutes]. DK Trip and I had been talking about doing a collab for quite some time. I remember getting in rap battles with that dude in high school. I was really impressed with his performance on our track, Black Gangster Gentlemen. He and Dyno both came in, I played the beat for them, and they already had verses they wanted to use. Both of them recorded in one take, which is rare for me.”
Q: How about the collaborations with Alsacia Lewis and Madison Brendle?
“Holy shit. Both of those girls can sing. Madison was the first one I worked with and I was really concerned it was going to be difficult to get her to sing something I wrote. But she listened to the beat a couple times, read the lyrics to herself, and just started singing some shit that amazed me. It was better than I imagined. Same with Alsacia. She did some pretty crazy vocal shit on both the tracks I featured her on. The thing I was most surprised with was the fact that both of them were completely open to saying the fucked up shit I wrote for them. I kept telling them we could change it if they wanted, but neither of them really took me up on that offer. Maybe they thought I’d just write something worse…”
Q: Are we going to be seeing any more music videos off this album?
“I plan on it. I want to try and make music videos for around half the songs on the album – still allowing the other half to be buyer-exclusive. Expect to see some music videos being released over the next month.”
Q: What is your favorite track off the album?
“I have a couple favorites. I really like Angels Of Death, Chill Days, and recently I’ve been jamming out to Up Inside Your Face. But I think my all-time favorite is Sexola. I’ve listened to that one a shit ton.”
Q: Future plans?
“Well, now that my second album is complete and released, I’ll more than likely just ride off into the sunset on an animal of some sort. An alligator would be sick. I’ll just disappear for a while and let everyone soak in this new music. Hopefully it sells; but not too well. If it sells too much then I’ll be famous enough to be torrented and then I won’t make any money. But it would be pretty cool to be famous enough for torrents…
Q: I meant like another album. Any plans for a third studio album?
“For fuck sake, I just finished this one. Give me some time to breathe. But yes, I plan on making another album. It won’t be produced by me though. I don’t want to produce my own stuff anymore. I want to work with different producers and compile my third album over the next couple years or so. I’ll release some videos and singles between now and then, but it will probably be some time before a third album is released. I have ideas. But nothing is for sure. It may not even happen at all.”
Rachie is available for $9.99 on iTunes and Amazon MP3 as of November 26th. You can like Camboi Smif’s Facebook page and check out his music videos on the MHproductions YouTube channel.
Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/CamboiSmif
YouTube page – https://www.youtube.com/user/MoochachasHunta08
iTunes page – https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/camboi-smif/id491697192