V Exclusive! B SMYTH Talks "Leggo" Video, Songwriting and His Perfect Girl

Motown artist B. Smyth, or BSMYTH1000 as many YouTube fans know him by is planning a takeover for 2013. After millions of views on his covers of Miguel’s “Sure Thing,” Frank Ocean’s “Thinking About You,” and Avant’s “Separated,” the 19 year-old singing sensation is more than ready for the world to hear his original music. VIBE recently talked with B. Smyth about his first single “Leggo” featuring 2 Chainz, songwriting, his ideal girl and touring with Miguel and Trey Songz.

VIBE: Let's start at the beginning. Tell us a little bit about your background and what inspired you to become a singer?
B. Smyth: Well, I’m originally from Ft Lauderdale, Fla. My mom is originally from Florida as well and my dad is from Jamaica. What inspires me to sing is my mom because when I was younger, she would always go around singing in the house. She even had a band herself when she was younger and music was just always in my face to be honest. Growing up, I wasn’t really into singing, I just did sports. I was pretty much just an athlete. I played a lot of football growing up. It wasn't until the Tenth grade that I got into chorus. I started doing talent shows and actually loved it. So, I’ve been singing for almost 3 years now.

I was just watching some of your cover songs of Miguel and Frank Ocean. Would you say that’s how you got your name out there?
That’s how I pretty much got my start. Starting out, I didn’t know how I was gonna do it, but I knew I wanted to do music. I didn’t know how I was gonna get to the next level. But the best way for me and any new artist is through the internet. Nowadays, that is your record label. So I started doing YouTube covers every week. I just used that to build a buzz to get my name out there and it just so happened that when I covered “Sure Thing” by Miguel, that video ended up on WorldStarHipHop. That’s how I got as much traffic as I did. After World Star, a lot of people started checking me out on Twitter and following me on YouTube and from there, that’s when the labels started looking like “Okay, maybe he has something.”

Do you write your own songs?
Yeah, I try to write as much as I can. I’ve been recording a lot; I’ve got like 40 songs already done. I try to write as much as I can. I haven’t written every single song, but writing is still a big deal to me.

We checked out the video for “Leggo.” It has a pretty catchy title and a cool feature- Two Chainz. How did that collabo come about?
After we recorded the song, we felt like it needed a collabo so the label and the production felt like it was a club song so we should put a rapper on it. They asked me who my favorite rappers were coming
up in the game right now. I listed a few, including Two Chainz and he was right next door at Def Jam so they helped make it come together.

The video seems reminiscent to “Every Little Step” by Bobby Brown. What would you say inspired the video and its awesome choreography?
Thank you! What inspired it was definitely Bobby Brown. He was someone I looked up to and inspired me as an artist, so I had to pay homage to him. For the dances I collaborated with three different choreographers. Collizion Crew, they were on America’s Best Dance Crew. So we all pretty much came together in a couple of months and we made a lot of progress. The video came about through Diane Martel. We wanted to do a performance based video instead of getting a whole bunch of girls and a whole bunch of cars. We wanted to do something that
would show the world the type of artist I am and let people really get to know who I am as a person.

So you opened for Miguel and Trey Songz; artists that you’ve covered. How was that experience for you?
It’s a big opportunity for me…I pretty much got signed from singing Miguel’s song, so to be sharing the stage with him is a pretty big deal. It was honor to perform alongside Miguel and Trey Songz for the last 2 nights of the Chapter V Tour. The last show of the tour was in Houston on Christmas Eve. It was a great experience, and I was able to watch 2 great performers at their best. I learned a lot.

I have to ask for all the teenyboppers out there: Is B. Smyth single?
Yes! Single and ready to mingle. [laughs]

I know you have a growing female fan-base so tell us about your perfect date or perfect girl.
My ideal girl wouldn’t be based on looks, because I’m big on vibes. If you can laugh and have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously, than you’re good with me. Whether it just be us in a blank room with four corners, and just enjoying each others company than its fine with me.