Smoove'L

Bringing a more melodic touch to New York’s burgeoning drill scene, rapper Smoove’L pulled from his experiences of the city as he built his career through the late 2010s. Though finding a steady following through Auto-Tuned trap, it was with drill that the rapper found his biggest success, with the 2019 single “New Apollos” racking up tens of millions of streams online.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City, rapper Smoove’L (birth name Lefty Frizzel Sanders, Jr.) got his first taste of music in his early teens as founder of trap collective CLN. After dropping group singles “Hatin” and “CLN” in 2015, Sanders began to release solo material as Smooove’L DaFinesser, which he eventually shortened to Smoove’L. Swerving between various rap stylings, the rapper’s early output was bound by its prominent use of Auto-Tune, with production typically conforming to contemporary trap trends. After mid-decade singles “Call My Phone” and “Run It Up” garnered hundreds of thousands of views online, Sanders released his debut mixtape, Youth Relationship, on in July of 2017. A second tape — My Mood — shortly followed in October of that year.
After a brief hiatus, Sanders returned to music in early 2019, dropping eight singles in the first four months of the year. His third mixtape, 4 Boy, arrived in May that year; a mix of Auto-crooned material and aggressive street trap, the project landed a feature from rising Memphis rapper NLE Choppa. It was Sanders’ fourth tape, Hood 2 Hollywood, that proved the turning point for his career: “Big Mad,” the rapper’s drill debut, swiftly became his biggest hit to date, bringing his material to the attention of mainstream audiences for the first time. Capitalizing on his viral success, Sanders dropped drill anthem “New Apollos” the following month, which soon superseded “Big Mad” with tens of millions of streams across digital platforms. Closing out the year with melodic drill bangers “Ouu Ahh” and “Talk wit Bro,” Sanders set to work on his fifth tape, Boy from Brooklyn. The project, released in May of 2020, saw the rapper shift entirely to drill, combining the genre’s stuttering, abrasive style with his trademark melodic approach. ~ David Crone