Larry Smith, the Larry Smith that produced "Sucker MC's", "It's Like That", Whodini's "Friends", and all of the early Run-DMC and Whodini classics, yes, that Larry Smith...is one of my best friends and mentors. I was introduced to him by Russel Simmons at the time Russel and I had just consumated a mangement deal that placed me on the illustrious Rush Productions Management roster, which included the "King Of Rap", Mr. Kurtis Blow.
Russell Simmons and Larry Smith had a parting of the ways at one point, and, being that I was quite attached to both of them, it disturbed me. It so disturbed me, that I had been mad at Russell for the longest about it. I HAVE ALWAYS FELT THAT BECAUSE OF THAT SPLIT, LARRY NEVER GOT THE PROPER RESPECT AND DUE PRAISE FOR HIS WORK!
Larry is now older and wiser, and, so am I for that matter. I wanted to set the record straight on this once and for all, so I set out to get Larry to open up about it.
Mr. Smith was very kind and open to me, as I called to do a phone interview with him. To interview a friend is always a hard thing to do, because you have to put friendship aside and ask hard questions.
No problem...
The interview is long (over an hour), and some parts are not very clear, as there was interference noise from the microphone apparatus and Larry's cordless phone (sorry Smith, I had to blame your equipment, not mine)! Larry offered to redo the interview with a cleaner recording, but you know what, it's almost poetic that the sound is raw! That's what Hip-Hop is, raw and unbridled! So here it is, in all it's raw, gritty, sometimes funny, sometimes serious unbridled passion:
It is a rare look into one of the most influential musicians of our time.
It is fair to say that Hip-Hop is not what it is today, if Larry Smith didn't do "Rock Box", or didn't produce run-DMC's first albums, or Whodini, or Grand Master Flash, or Orange Krush. This jewel from a master is yours to keep, so if you can't hear him sometimes, you can run it over and over to catch every word. I call Him, "Smith & Wesson", because he always kicks the ballistics...
Spyder D interviews Larry Smith, "The Real King Of Rock"
(You will have to right click the download icon to download the mp3 file to your computer. File is 118mb)
