The Singles Bar: Z. Smith eyes his true destiny on ‘Ready Up,’ featuring Meggie York
The Ohio-born rapper pulls himself up off the ground and soldiers onward with his new song.
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His sneakers are scuffed, but he pushes himself to the brink. The world swirls in dazzling brushstrokes around him, and in reveling in the beauty, he feels the weight crushing his shoulders. As with most working musicians, who are put through the machine when they least expect it, rapper Z. Smith was down on his luck, feeling like an outcast and exasperated. But when he took a listen to an instrumental that fell into his lap, the barebones of what would soon become a chest-pounding refrain, he was reinvigorated from the core to his fingertips. “Ready Up,” featuring a soaring hook from vocalist Meggie York, encompasses the underdog tale, one of lock-jawed determination and embracing every ounce of failure for the sake of will power.
“I was feeling pretty down on my music and on my career and started questioning whether or not I wanted to continue chasing a career as an artist,” he says, expressing his angst over a career that was seemingly slipping from his grasp. “I kept focusing on how far I still have to go to make a name in this industry, and while I played the instrumental, I started reflecting on how far I’ve really come instead, which is something I think most people can relate to at some point in their lives.”
“Raised with Generation Y / It’s Generation Y not / Couple hundred thousands kids with their eyes locked / On one goal to show, look what I brought,” he spits, an arrangement of flaking piano, acoustic guitar and synthetic percussion. Illustrating a “fake it till you make it” attitude, spliced with and grounded upon York’s lilting charm, Z. Smith soon learns to uphold and cherish the things that are right in his life. Originally from Cincinnati, the now-Nashville residing performer stitches together a robust message of hope and fulfilling his own destiny, one which flies in the face of tradition and seeks to lace up a new way of thinking.
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