User:Faceliftpr/Ray V Smith

Raymond Smith was born Nov 21, 1972 in Brooklyn, New York. Ray is considered a Hip Hop Historian due to his ongoing research, and contribution to the hip hop community. He was the Executive Producer of the first ever variety music calendars in 1998,which featured a collaboration of the biggest names in the Hip Hop/R&B community. Such artists that participated were Monica, Dmx, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef, Master P, Dr. Dre, Jermaine Dupri, Mya, and over 100 other artists have participated in the calendar. The calendars also included important milestones in the history of urban music. In addition, he executive produced a solo calendar of T-boz of TLC & Sticky Fingaz of Onyx.

Raymond received his M.A in Sociology from Clark Atlanta University in May, 2005 and is currently a PhD candidate at Georgia State University. Since his formal education, he has gone on to work on documentaries of artist of the same calibre.