Down-South: Where are you all now?
Southstar: We're traveling back from Tampa

Down-South: Tampa to Orlando?
Southstar: Tampa to Orlando, yeah.

Down-South: Were yall doing a show out there?
Smilez:    Actually we were in Tampa…well we were in San Fran. We did a show in San Francisco at City Nights

Down-South: Right.
Smilez: And we rocked that. Right after that, the next morning we flew into Tampa and did a show for Wild - Wild 98
Southstar: We rocked those two shows. Tampa is giving us a lot of support. So we wanted to show love back.

Down-South: Where are yall originally from?
Smilez: Umm, I'm originally from the Bronx. I moved down here about 6 years ago. My mother wanted to move me down here because she use to always come down to Disney and she fell in love with it. So she made us move down here. I think that's like everybody, everybody just move down here. They say Orlando has no hospitals so everybody just moves down to Orlando.
Southstar: What up this is South. I'm originally from…I grew up in LA and I lived in Jersey a couple of years but I been in Orlando now for 7 years. I kinda like been a little bit of everywhere…east, west.

Down-South: How did yall end up connecting with each other?
Smilez: Me and Southstar, we were both doing our thing in Orlando. Opening up for acts that would come down here. Getting on the radio. And we always liked each other, we heard of each other and we always wanted to hook up. So we hooked up with this DJ in Orlando named DJ Ekin on a mixtape. We hooked up then but we wanted to hook up again and get on a real song instead of a freestyle. But you know how money is, money is real tight. We both had jobs but we both had a lot of bills. South Star knew Dakari from playing basketball and I knew D from working with him in the music business. And Dakari wanted to work with the group and he brought us into the studio. We did two joints that night and the energy was unbelievable and we just took off from there. We started in August and we had the album done by January

Down-South: Are you guys single?
Southstar: We're both single

Down-South: What are your ages?
Southstar: I'm 23
Smilez: I'm 25

Down-South: The first single yall got popping off the album, with the video is "Who Want's This" The video is crazy. Who shot the video?
Smilez: Gregory Dunn shot the video. He's a big porn director also. Now ya know. We got a dirty version of the video on the Internet.

Down-South: Right
Smilez: The clean version is on BET and MTV

Down-South: Where did yall shoot the video?
Smilez: We shot the video in LA

Down-South: Were yall in LA for a minute shooting the video or were you out there promoting also?
Smilez: We were out there for a week. We did two days shooting the video and two days of photo shoots. And the other days just meeting the label. That was when we first went out there. Right after we got signed we went out there and shot it.

Down-South: What influenced yall to come up with the single? The song has a sort of reggae flavor happening in it.
Smilez: The reggae influence was from Dakari from Just Another Smash Entertainment. He's originally from England so he has that in him already. He came with the track and the track is crazy. We just went in there and hopped on it and we just laid it down. Nobody think Orlando has hip-hop that we can't come out with hip-hop. We wanted to show everybody that Orlando does have hip-hop. This song is definitely directed to the industry and the people that don't think Orlando can come out with a legitimate hip hop group. You feel me?

Down-South: Right. When is the Album coming out?
Southstar: The album came out July 23rd . It's called "Crash The Party"
Smilez: It's crazy. The album is bananas.

Down-South: What kind of flavor can we expect on the album?
Smilez: The album, it gives you almost like a little bit of everything. I mean look at the title it's Crash The Party. It's really like we talk about going out to the club, we talk about girls and relationships, we talk about people we lost, umm we talk about just having a good time and just enjoying this.

Down-South: Do you think this album will be filling a void in the rap industry right now? Is it something missing from the rap game now that this album will bring to the table?
Smilez: This album, we got is a brand new sound. A brand new sound coming out of the south. It's not east coast it's not west coast. I think it's a national sound. It's new and I think we need something new. It's like when Nelly came out. It was brand new and I think we needed that. And now it's our time…Smilez and Southstar. We bringing something new. We gonna do just what Nelly did for St. Lou, were gonna do it for Orlando.

Down-South: Who produced the album?
Smilez: Dakari from JAS Ent., he produced the whole album except for one song "Tell Me" which was produced by DJ Nasty.
Southstar: "Tell Me" will probably be the next single that song is gonna be huge.

Down-South: Tell us about your producer Dakari. What has he done in the industry before and how was it working with him?
Southstar: Dakari's originally from Boston so when he first started he did a lot of hip-hop for people in Boston like locally. He moved to Orlando and worked with a lot of Pop groups like N Sync, LFO, O-Town, all the pop groups. He's the in-house producer for Transcontinental records. He has a feel for everything, hip pop, r&b. Working with him is crazy cause he always comes with something different. Just go in the studio and vibe together. His beats are crazy. Did you hear the album?

Down-South: Yeah I heard the album and it's refreshing. Especially coming out of Florida.

Southstar: We approached this album trying to do something new. Not your typical Neptunes, Timberland…know what I mean. We wanted to throw something new out there. A new sound

Down-South: As far as your journey to getting a record deal…was it difficult? Had you been grinding for a while or have yall been rapping for a year and got lucky?
Smilez: Basically both of us have been grinding for a long time. For at least 5 years. We didn't just jump into this. We did all the underground shows, the freestyling, doing battles and all that. It was time for Orlando to blow and I think we're the ones who are gonna do it. It's a lot of talent in Orlando and people need to recognize that. We're gonna make sure Orlando get's recognized.

Down-South: How hard is it being a rap group from Florida? Orlando in particular?
Southstar: Being that Orlando hadn't really had nothing in a minute makes it harder for us than if we had come out of NY or LA of course. We just do us. Do what we know how to do well and let our music speak for itself and basically rep our city. We not gonna come around saying we from NY so people will play our records. We gonna tell them we're from Orlando and let the music speak for itself.

Down-South: What kind of music gets played in Orlando?
Smilez: All types of hip hop. Jay Z. Eminem. Trick. Trina…holla at ya boy. Raphael Sadiqq is one of my favorite R&B acts right now. I like his album.

Down-South: How was the local support for yall when you were coming up?
Smilez: We got a lot of support from Orlando. They already know us there. They know us and what we trying to do, so they gave us support. We got support from the underground stations and the radio stations. What we wanna do is when people from Orlando go to NY; say they're from Orlando. When people are in the clubs and they ask who's from Orlando we want people to be proud to say they from Orlando. That's one of the voids we want to fill.

Down-South: To everybody who thinks Orlando is a Disney World town, let the people know what's up with the Real Orlando?
Southstar: Orlando is a city like any other city across the country. NY wherever. You got your hoods or whatnot. It's just a little smaller. The same things go on that go on in other cities. It's just that all you know now is Disney World. That's what we're trying to change. When you think about Orlando we want you to think like they got a hip hop scene jumping off over there too. People didn't know too much about St. Louis except the Rams before Nelly. Now everyone know St. Louis got a scene jumping off.

Down-South: How are the girls in Orlando?
Smilez: It's crazy down here. You know we don't get no winter down here so it's all short shorts and sundresses and bikini tops.

Down-South: Since yall been on the road any groupie adventures jump off?
Southstar: Groupies?

Down-South: You say like you don't know what they are. What's going on? Yall got a video out there so I know it's a couple coming out the woodworks?
Smilez: We got a couple of crazy things going on.
Southstar: That's just part of the job you know…one of the perks.

Down-South: Any of the coming back to the hotel to find a girl butt naked in the bed waiting on yall? None of that?
(Silence then lots of laughter)

Down-South: How are the fans reacting to your performance?
Southstar: I can give you an example and you can write around it. We were in San Fran in the beginning of June and there was a festival there. After we performed, we stayed and signed autographs for 3 hours.
Smilez: The fans have been real cool for us. They've supported us and we definitely appreciate that and all the support we've been getting acroSouthstar the country.

Down-South: What other cities will yall be touring to?
Smilez: We're gonna start on the east coast tour, then we're gonna hit Baltimore, Washington, NY, Atlanta, Phili, Chicago. If any one wants specific dates they can get on the web site www.smilezandSouthstarr.com.

Down-South: Any artist yall would like to collaborate with in the future?
Southstar: I think as far as artists, there are some r&b artists. I know smiles would like to collaborate with Alicia Keys
Smilez: Holla
Southstar: Claudette from City High. As far as hip-hop probably Jay Z, and Eminem. There are a lot of people we would like to collaborate with if the opportunity came.

Down-South: How has yall life changed since the record started bubbling? what's the biggest change in yall life?
Smilez: One of the biggest changes is that I can wake up when I want and I don't have to clock in. It's a big thing that I don't have to clock in. It's a beautiful thing. And I'm doing something I love. The down side is that we have to wake up mad early and the flights and connecting flights and the jet lag from going east to west but it all balances out you know.

Down-South: How do your family friends feel about your success?
Smilez: My family is real supportive they're more excited than I am and my friends are supporting me. I have friends that are emcees and they understand that it takes time before I can get them on. So they falling back and they supporting me and waiting for me to blow up and then I'll blow them up.

Down-South: In closing what do we need to look out for in the future? Any upcoming projects?
Smilez: The album came out on July 23rd. Of course anything they wanna check out about us they can go to the website at www.smilezandSouthstar.com. As soon as the album drop we'll be going on a tour across the country.

Down-South: Will it be posted on the website?
Smilez: Yeah everything will be on the website.

Down-South: Is there anything else yall wanna add?
Smilez: Big shout to everybody that's been supporting us. All the fans, all the radio stations that's playing our record. Street Dwellaz Management. That's pretty much.

Down-South: Thanks fellas

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by: Miami Mac.  © 2002 Down-South.com