Larry Smith (producer)
{{For|the member of Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band|Larry Smith (musician)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Larry Smith
| image = Larry Smith producer.jpg
| caption = Smith in 1983
| image_size =
| birth_name = Lawrence Smith
| alias =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1952|06|11}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2014|12|19|1952|6|11}}
| death_place = New York City, U.S.
| instrument = {{hlist|Bass guitar|Oberheim DMX|Prophet 5|Linn Drum|Roland TR-808}}
| genre = Hip hop
| occupation = Record producer
| years_active = 1979–1994
| label =
| associated_acts = {{hlist|Kurtis Blow|The Fat Boys|Run DMC|Whodini|Jimmy Spicer|Russell Simmons}}
}}
Lawrence Smith (June 11, 1952 – December 19, 2014) was a pioneering American musician and hip hop record producer. He is best known for his co-productions (with Russell Simmons) of Run-DMC's Run-D.M.C. (1984) and King of Rock (1985) and his solo production of Whodini's Escape (1984) and Back in Black (1986).{{cite web|last1=Ettelson|first1=Robbie|title=The Triumphs and Tragedies of Larry Smith|url=https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-triumphs-and-tragedies-of-larry-smith-ca3f259eec70|website=Medium.com|access-date=2014-10-19}}
It is a measure of Smith's creative range that he could work simultaneously with the decidedly dissimilar Run-D.M.C. and Whodini. The former was rock-oriented, the latter leaned toward R&B—or as the critic Tom Terrell suggested, "Smith envisioned Whodini as the luxe Cadillac Seville to Run-D.M.C.'s Electra 225 hooptie."Tom Terrell, "The Vibe History of Hip-Hop," 1995, p.50
Smith's work has engendered not just critical esteem, but popular success. In the month ending February 23, 1985, both Run-D.M.C. and Escape were certified gold by the RIAA, as was the Fat Boys' eponymous debut album, on which Smith played bass and helped to compose the hit single "Jail House Rap."Nelson George, "The Rhythm & The Blues," Billboard, February 23, 1985. These were among the first hip hop albums to be certified for Gold-level sales by the Recording Industry Association of America.
In 1987 Whodini's John "Ecstasy" Fletcher described Smith as "the Quincy Jones of rap."Right On! Music Special, Summer 1987. In 2010 Run-DMC's Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels claimed, "Larry Smith's musical arsenal equals Dr. Dre's."Vibe.com, April 14, 2010. In 2009, the producer DJ Premier placed Smith first on his list of Top-5 Dead or Alive Producers, ahead of Marley Marl, Kurtis Mantronik, James Brown, and Rick Rubin.{{cite web |url=http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/djsproducers/archive/2009/05/27/21614431.aspx |title=Features / DJS Producers : TOP 5 DEAD OR ALIVE PRODUCERS: DJ Premier |website=www.allhiphop.com |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530050445/http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/djsproducers/archive/2009/05/27/21614431.aspx |archive-date=30 May 2009 |url-status=dead}}
Early career
Larry Smith was born and raised in St. Albans, Queens, New York, and attended Andrew Jackson High School. He taught himself to play bass by listening to James Brown's records. Eventually, Smith did all kinds of session work, played punk-rock, jazz, and blues, then logged stints in the house band of more than one musical.Adler, Bill, "Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC," 2002, pp. 51, 52.
In 1979, Smith was recruited by his old friend Robert "Rocky" Ford, then an aspiring record producer, to play bass on Kurtis Blow's "Christmas Rappin'." Smith went on to co-write and to play bass on other Blow recordings such as "The Breaks" (one of the first hip hop records to crack into Billboard
It was while working with Blow that Smith met Blow's manager, Russell Simmons. By 1982, the pair was producing records together, starting with a couple of singles for the rapper Jimmy Spicer: "The Bubble Bunch" (1982) and "Money (Dollar Bill, Y'all)" (1983).
Making ''Run-D.M.C'' and ''King of Rock''
Although Smith was a trained musician, he chose not to employ live studio musicians to provide the music for Run-DMC. Aiming to reproduce on record the spare sound of hip hop music as it was then being made in the city's parks and clubs, he relied instead on drum machines. The result—embodied in Run-DMC's first single, "It's Like That" b/w "Sucker MCs"—was little more than beats and rhymes, a formula that critic Jesse Serwer has described as "the template for most [hip hop] records from '83 until '86–'87".{{cite web |url=http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=97 |title=Archived copy |website=jesseserwer.com |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110113031227/http://jesseserwer.com/blog/?p=97 |archive-date=13 January 2011 |url-status=dead}}
When Run-DMC's eponymous first album was released in the spring of 1984, it was hailed by Robert Christgau as "easily the canniest and most formally sustained [hip hop] album ever."Village Voice, April 24, 1984. One of the album's standout tracks was "Rock Box", a pioneering hybrid of hip hop and rock. According to Bill Adler in Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-D.M.C., the record came together when the group overheard the band Riot recording in New York's Greene Street Studios. "They saw these loud guitars," remembers Russell Simmons, "and they started screaming, 'We can do that! What the we're going to make loud noise too!'" Steve Loeb, the owner of Greene Street, was skeptical of the viability of a rock–hip hop crossover, but Smith overruled him and recruited Eddie Martinez—a personal friend of his—to supply the guitar part for "Rock Box".Adler, Bill, Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC, 2002, p.91.
Run-D.M.C. was named by The Source magazine in 1998 as one of the 100 Best Rap Albums Ever{{cite web|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/source.htm|title=Rocklist.net...The Source 100 Best Rap Albums & Singles..|access-date=19 December 2014}} and by Rolling Stone as one of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-albums-of-the-eighties-20110418|title=100 Best Albums of the Eighties|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=16 November 1989|access-date=19 December 2014}} In 2005, critic Tom Breihan described the album as "the LP that forever tore rap away from disco and made it its own thing".{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11816-run-dmc-king-of-rock-raising-hell-tougher-than-leather/|title=Run-D.M.C.: Run-DMC / King of Rock / Raising Hell / Tougher Than Leather|website=Pitchfork.com|access-date=27 June 2021}}
Smith and Simmons's second album for Run-DMC was King of Rock. The title track, which again featured Eddie Martinez on guitar, let the group "crunch and pop like some sort of hip-hop Black Sabbath," in the words of Rolling Stone
Making ''Escape''
In the wake of the success of Run-D.M.C.'s first singles, Smith was engaged to produce a new album by Whodini, a Brooklyn hip hop trio that had been recording for then-London-based Jive Records since 1982. Just as "It's Like That" b/w "Sucker MCs" anchored Run-D.M.C., so Smith's production of the single "Friends" b/w "Five Minutes of Funk" would anchor Whodini's Escape. Ultimately, it reached number four on Billboard
In a 2009 interview with Jesse Serwer, Whodini's Jalil Hutchins recalled being introduced to Smith at Disco Fever in the Bronx: "Me and Larry became friends, and when we was going to record, we said, 'Lar, what you got?' He laid out his ideas real fast, and the first was 'Five Minutes of Funk.' When we caught that beat, we were like, 'Messing with you is gonna be fun.' We made that record in, like, a half hour."
Escape's other notable single was "Freaks Come out at Night," about which the critic Greg Tate wrote: "[The track's] sybaritic verses would be just so much more overbaked hip hop toasting without Smith's sizzling contrapuntal eruptions arcing and looping in and out of the vocals. Smith and Whodini have laid the groundwork for a genus of hip hop as capable of personal revelation as the blues of Robert Johnson and as worldly wise as the melodic muse of Wayne Shorter."Village Voice, June 18, 1985. Certified platinum in 1987, Escape was named one of the 100 Best Rap Albums in The Source in 1998.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/source.htm|title=The Source 100 Best Rap Albums & Singles|website=Rocklistmusic.co.uk|access-date=27 June 2021}}
The critic Vince Aletti, writing for Andy Warhol's Interview magazine in April 1986, summed up the impact of Smith's work for Whodini: "A funky but melodic mix that gives the material the appeal of songs rather than bare-boned rap attacks, these songs have gone on to become hits that helped open ears and airwaves to [hip hop]."
Personal life
Smith married his wife Michelle on his birthday, 11 June 1986. They met in England whilst he was producing Whodini's second album. They married in New York.
In November 2007 Smith suffered a stroke. It left him unable to speak.{{cite web |url=http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2007/11/08/18854095.aspx |title=AllHipHop.com Daily News - : Legendary Producer for Run DMC & Whodini Suffers Stroke |website=allhiphop.com |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113111839/http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2007/11/08/18854095.aspx |archive-date=13 January 2008 |url-status=dead}}
He died on December 19, 2014.{{cite web|url=https://www.spin.com/2014/12/larry-smith-run-dmc-producer-died/|title=Larry Smith, Renowned Run-D.M.C. Producer, Has Died|website=Spin.com|date=19 December 2014|access-date=19 December 2014}}
References
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Category:Hip-hop record producers
Category:People from St. Albans, Queens
Category:Andrew Jackson High School (Queens) alumni