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Travon Smith was born in South Central L.A, better known as Florence and Normandie, as he says. Travon was born to a single mother and grandparents, and has always had a stable home. Travon moved around numerous locations in California with his mother, her newfound husband, and his new baby sister before settling down in the Inland Empire. This is where T.Smith met T-bo and MD, not knowing this friendship would eventually lead to a family tie. While majoring in business Travon developed a passion for music, interning at local radio stations and indie labels. Just as everything was going right Travon was accused of ridiculous allegations and detained then asked to leave school and San Diego County. Later, to have the charges dropped, Travon returned home and received his AA. He is now pursuing his BA. Not sure where he wanted to go with music, Travon received his record engineering license.
Recently, Travon performed with Sugafree, WC, and Fuzzy from Something for the People. He has come on late but it was worth the wait. With hot performances at Z90.3 Peace Fest and USC's 2000 Urban Show, and numerous performances along Hollywood's strip, Travon is doing more than holding his own. He and MD are featured in the May 2002 issue of Music Connection as one of the first urban duos to make the magazine and get an above average rating.
[Danielle's Note:] When I met Travon Smith (a.k.a. T. Smith) some time ago, he had recently awakened from a 6-month long coma though the skill of his rap. The genius of his lyrics would have never betrayed him. Instead of talking about his recent experience, we spent most the time talking about the youth programs and benefits he had organized and planned to as well as his concern for the community.
This is Travon in a nutshell; a brilliant rap artist whose concern for humanity is so great that his own problems seem to pale in comparison, an individual whose ambition is rooted in this concern. I truly feel that Travon is the king of ‘conscientious rap’ as his lyrics portray the very things he is so passionate about: society, community, the well-being of others.
Travon’s music is unique in language and presentation, his raspy, deep voice and controversial yet thoroughly important words at the seat of his excellence.
Along with being a stellar rapper and lyricist, Travon launched Pretty Boy LLC in 2003 with percentages of all profits through Pretty Boy donated to the community. You can learn and hear more about Travon by visiting http://www.prettyboymusic.com..
This month we present three as-yet-untitled songs by Travon Smith, from his soon-to-be-released CD. —DG
Travon Smith's music remained on Unlikely 2.0 for one year, then was removed for reasons of space and copyright. Please check out his web page, Pretty Boy Music.
These songs are .m4a files, and might not play with a regular .mp3 player. We recommend that you install QuickTime to hear Travon's music.