With certain conditions such as moving from house to house, and a less than okay relationship with his mother, Taj Smith, 20, also known as Taj Amani, decided it was time for a change.

At the end of 2012, with his high school football career coming to an end, his father, Kevin Smith, went down to North Carolina from Providence, Rhode Island, to see his son play. “When my dad came down to see me, it was great. We just starting kicking it and we were having a great time...it was nice to kind of get away for a while.”

It was during this time in which the two came to the decision that it would be best for him to move in with his father in Providence. When Smith arrived to Providence, he didn't have much time to settle down. Since it was during the middle of the school year, Smith had to make a quick decision as to where he wanted to finish out his high school career. "There are way more schools near my house now, in Providence, than there were in North Carolina."

Although it was tough, Smith ended up choosing to attend Classical High School. During his time at Classical, Smith ran for the schools Track & Field team. Smith ran the 60m dash and the 4x200 relay. Riding an undefeated regular season, they ended up finishing second in the state meet. When asked how sports plays into his life, Smith said, "When I was in high school, any sport I played was an outlet for me to get away for a while, but now, when I have the chance, I play for fun." 

After his completion of high school, Smith was accepted into the University of Rhode Island. Smith was part of the 2013 Talent Development program, or TD for short. TD serves Rhode Island high school graduates who have college potential and come from disadvantaged backgrounds and admits them through a rigorous summer program. This summer program provides them with an assigned academic advisor, and retains students with financial assistance, amongst other things. 

Smith completed the program with a 3.5 GPA and awaited the arrival of his freshman year of college.

It was during this time in which Smith started to surround himself more and more with music, saying, "My first semester I was freestyling and trying to develop my sound more than anything, then second semester came around and I started writing. I had a few songs with some of my close friends, but I didn't release any music."

Smith really started to push his music career when he dropped out of his former music group, $tackTeam, and created his own label, District 4, or D4 for short. It represents where Smith is from, which is Wake County, North Carolina. "I moved around a lot when I was growing up and I couldn't pick just one city to represent because everywhere that I have lived has taught me something valuable, so I chose to represent all of Wake County. 

With a good head on his shoulders and support from both his friends and family, Smith's stock has been rising. From getting his music out through his Soundcloud and other sources of social media, Smith has been able to perform a couple of shows. Now although Smith has mainly performed at The Met, in Pawtucket, he knows that it will only open up more opportunities. "In general, I just really enjoy performing. Seeing everybody vibing out to my music and really enjoying it, it doesn't get better than that. For people to really like what I put my all into, it's very humbling." 

Smith is currently a junior at the University of Rhode Island, and is double majoring in computer science and film media. 

Balancing out the two is not as bad as one would think.  Smith said, "Sometimes it's a bit much, but the majority of the time it's fine. The fields that I'm currently in, I love just as much as rap itself. They go hand-in-hand with rap in a way, and it's a way to keep me involved with my craft as much as possible." 

As for any other aspiring artists, or others thinking about making the leap to the music world, Smith had some advice,saying, "First off, don't let anyone kill your confidence. You have to make sure that the people you surround yourself with are good people and actually support what you are doing, because at the end of the day, it's a family. That's what makes it worth it, not only doing this for me, but for my close friends and family, too."