Background and career
John Smith (born February 14, 1976), known by his stage name Big Smo, is an American country rap musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and film director. After several independent and minor label releases, Smo's major label debut studio album, Kuntry Livin', was released in 2014 and charted on three Billboard charts. He was the subject of an eponymous reality television series on A&E that began in 2014.
John Lee Smith was born in San Diego, California, to mother Mary Jane Smith and father Carl Avery Smith. His father, who was a veteran of the U.S. Navy, died in 2007. His mother is his business manager.
Smith started his musical endeavors in 1999, but did not release an album for three years. He released Kuntry Kitchen with Yayoda Records in 2002. Then, he released another album with Yayoda in 2007 entitled The True South. His last self-released album was 2018's Special Reserve In 2010, his homemade music video "Kickin' It in Tennessee" went viral, garnering over five million views on YouTube. He released two EPs with Warner Bros. Records that were 2012's Grass Roots and 2013's Backwoods Whiskey. Smith's major-label debut came out in 2014, entitled Kuntry Livin'.
According to Matt Bjorke of Roughstock, Big Smo is one of the foremost grassroots artists in a style known as rural rap or hick-hop, "which blends rural, Country themes and melodies with some rap elements (production and vocal delivery)". AllMusic's Steve Legget commented that Big Smo "combines country themes and attitudes with rap and hip-hop in a style that prompted one reviewer to note 'If Kid Rock and Run–D.M.C. had a love child, he would be named Big Smo,' although combining Hank Williams Jr. with Nappy Roots might strike a bit closer." Rolling Stone described Big Smo as sounding like "If Run–D.M.C.'s 'Walk This Way' stomped out of Queens and ended up in the rural south." The music on Kuntry Livin' was described as spinning "rap rhymes about working-class values over hard-rock riffs."
Smith was the principal subject of an eponymously titled television series, Big Smo. The program, about his life and music by A&E, debuted in June 2014. He appeared in one episode, "Empty Bottles Full Cans", of the Spike TV series Bar Rescue. His life is featured in episode one, "Kuntry Livin", of CarbonTV's original series Heartlandia, showing him shooting guns, cooking, and making music.
Smith lives on his 32 acres (13 ha) family farm compound known as, the "Kuntry Ranch", located in Unionville, Tennessee, a part of the Shelbyville, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area. In 2024, after losing 225 pounds, he announced plans to open a plant-based food truck in Shelbyville.
