Accent: Yung Smoody sings his ‘Letter 2 Mama’-
Lrapper Kody Sutton, aka Yung Smoody, created a viral hit with his heartfelt, powerful song “Letter 2 Mama,” which he’s sure to perform Sunday at a Club Primetime New Year’s Eve show. Sutton, a Texas High graduate who went on to play football at the University of Wyoming and Southeastern Louisiana University before a torn ACL hampered his career, always had music on his mind, too. Rapping has served as a creative outlet.
As Yung Smoody, he’s released a couple CDs and now finds music is where he’s channeling his energy.
“I’ve been rapping since I was in the 6th or 7th grade,” Sutton said. He liked how music made him feel. He used to freestyle and recalls how it would change the way people feel, just by singing something and getting it off his chest.
Sutton continued rapping in high school, although he slowed down in college. He still did it in the locker room, but rap was put on the back burner. Once he was officially through with football, he got back into it.
“The song I wrote to my mom, she had been on to me,” Sutton said about his mother, who asked when he’d make a song for her. “Letter 2 Mama” was the result, although as a song he incorporates the lives of other people he’s known, people who made different choices in life.
“I just sat back and I just thought about what people go through, what kids my age go through,” Sutton said, “and how they feel. And certain choices, like some of my friends or kids I know made. They had a promising future … I was speaking for them.”
In this way, as Yung Smoody he could use his platform to share their lives and their reality, portray how youth today feel. “Just mixing theirs in with mine,” he said. “Making it a letter to not just my mom, but everybody’s mom, you know.”
He knows so many mothers who urge their children to stay out of the streets and get on a different path, he says. “Just play sports or go to school and do that,” he said. But part of the song is that he sings from the child’s point of view, too, and those youngsters have answers for everything.
Yung Smoody’s video portrays a robbery gone wrong, a cautionary tale about a youth dying. “I just want to show what’s really happening,” he said, having been inspired by news reports of younger people doing this. He wants youngsters to see that this is what can happen if you live that kind of lifestyle.
Comments poured in on his social media pages from people all over the country. “I didn’t expect it to take off like that,” Sutton admitted, but people told him the song affected them for the better and people shared their personal stories.
“I got some great feedback from it, people going through real situations like that everyday,” said Sutton, who’s also known as Professor Finessor.
He finds that what’s close to home inspires him to keep making music.
“My daughter and my family, really just knowing that I’m getting paid for it now and
knowing that I can provide for my family rapping and making music. That’s motivation to me and just the other guys in the city that do music,” Sutton said. Credit his mom, too, and the ability to help others as further inspiration.
His lyrics are relatable, whether it’s having the time of his life on a night out or his car or the type of things he discusses in “Letter 2 Mama.” When it comes to rappers he admires, he names Tupac Shakur and Boosie.
“And basically because they spill facts, it’s like poetry. They’re talking about what they’ve been through. They can read a situation in the newspaper and make a song about it,” Yung Smoody says.
On Sunday night at Club Primetime, he’ll be part of a bill that includes Kae and Foolie Don for this New Year’s Eve show.
“It gets everybody together and brings the city out. It gives a lot of local talent a chance to perform and everybody to see them and hear their music,” Sutton said about the annual Sgt. B show. Performing live and seeing the crowd reaction gives him an adrenalin rush.
“I just like having a spotlight on me where they’re actually listening, they’re actually listening to what I’m saying. I like the attention. I like being on the stage. I like entertaining,” he said.
Check out Yung Smoody at his Facebook and Twitter pages of the same name. He has two albums out, available online at places like Spotify and Apple Music.