Corbin (musician)

Corbin Smidzik (born February 20, 1998), better known as Corbin (previously known as Spooky Black and Lil Spook)[2] is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is a member of the hip hop/R&B collective Thestand4rd.[3]

Corbin
Corbin performing in Toronto, 2017
Background information
Birth nameCorbin Smidzik
Also known as
  • Spooky Black
  • Lil Spook
  • Spooky Shart
Born (1998-02-20) February 20, 1998
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
OriginSaint Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)Singer-songwriter
InstrumentsVocals
Years active2013–present
Associated acts

Career

Smidzik gained popularity on the internet through a series of solo releases on the website SoundCloud.[4] His first release Forest was put out in late 2013 and exhibited a hip hop sound with Smidzik rapping on every song, in contrast to his later and more recognized R&B-stylized singing.

By 2014, Smidzik was gaining mass exposure with the help of SoundCloud and YouTube. The video for the song "Without You", from the mixtape Black Silk (released in February 2014[5]), went viral, attaining more than a million views on video-sharing websites YouTube and WorldStarHipHop.[2] Noisey declared the video an "instant classic" and published an article titled "Is Spooky Black Going to Take Over the R&B Game?", while Consequence of Sound and Complex magazine named "Without You" one of the best songs of 2014.[4][6][7][8]

Smidzik is noted for releasing his material without promotion, and has frequently declined requests for interviews.[9][4][8] In August 2014, he released the EP Leaving and a music video for its track "DJ Khaled Is My Father".[10] By October, Smidzik was being managed by Canadian producer Doc McKinney.[2] In December, he premiered a new song, "Worn", under the new name Corbin.[11] On Twitter, Smidzik's reason for the name change was because "Spooky Black is a dumb name."[12]

Also in 2014, Smidzik and fellow Minnesota musicians Allan Kingdom, Bobby Raps, and Psymun formed the hip hop/R&B group Thestand4rd. They released their self-titled debut album, Thestand4rd, in November 2014, produced entirely by the group and Doc McKinney.[3][13][14] During November 2014, Corbin and the Stand4rd embarked on a US tour, which included a gig at SOB's in New York City where they were introduced by DJ Khaled.[9] The group ended up selling out all seven of the shows on their debut headlining tour.[15]

After the release of Couch Potato with Bobby Raps in 2015, Smidzik remained quiet and rarely did performances for 2 years. On January 16, 2017, Smidzik unexpectedly uploaded a song, "Destrooy" onto his SoundCloud.[16] On June 25, 2017, he announced on Twitter that himself, Shlohmo, and D33J would be going on a North American tour later in the year.[17] Later, on August 24, Smidzik announced his debut album, Mourn, which was released on September 5, 2017 on Shlohmo's record label Wedidit.[18]

In American recording artist Janet Jackson's State of the World Tour, she uses the song "Idle" from Corbin's Leaving EP as a video interlude before playing the song "What About".[19]

On January 1, 2019, Corbin began releasing singles to his SoundCloud page. The first to be released was "Wretch"[20] as a New Years gift to fans. Over the course of the year, "Wretch" was followed by several more singles both new and unreleased. Later, in August of the same year, Corbin lost access to his Spotify account.[21]

In 2020 as a response to losing access to his Spotify account, Corbin started uploading previous Soundcloud uploads to a new Spotify page under his name, Corbin Smidzik.[22] Included in these uploads is a previous version of his album Mourn, simply titled: Mourn 2016.[23]

On July 24, 2020, Corbin featured on The Kid Laroi's song "Not Fair" off of his debut mixtape, F*ck Love. Corbin also appeared in the accompanying music video released the same day.[24]

Corbin has written songs for artists including Future,[25] NAV,[26] and Dua Saleh.[27]

Discography

Studio albums
  • Thestand4rd (2014) (as Spooky Black) (with Allan Kingdom, Bobby Raps, and Psymun, as Thestand4rd)
  • Mourn (2017)
  • Mourn 2016 (2019) (as Corbin Smidzik)

Mixtapes
  • Forest (2013) (as Spooky Black)
  • Black Silk (2014) (as Lil Spook)

EPs
  • Leaving (2014) (as Spooky Black)
  • Couch Potato (2015) (with Bobby Raps)

Singles
  • "Destrooy" (2017）
  • "Wretch" (2019)
  • "Calmdown" (2019)
  • "F*ckthisbad(rufff)" (2019)
  • "There's a 100 Million Girls in the World.. But I... Want... Youuu" (2019)
  • "Misery Demo" (2019)
  • "Krrokodil Interlude" (2019)

References
  1. Price, Joe (September 14, 2017). "Corbin on the anger, isolation, and paranoia of his debut album". Dazed. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  2. Riemenschneider, Chris (October 2, 2014). "Trying to decode MN's viral sensation Spooky Black". Star Tribune. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  3. Whalen, Eamon (October 29, 2014). "Meet The Minnesota Misfits Behind thestand4rd". The Fader. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  4. Winistorfer, Andrew (December 11, 2014). "Look Meme, I'm Famemeous: The Year the Music Internet Left Blogs Behind". Noisey. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  5. P-B, Devin (August 11, 2014). "Spooky Black "Leaving" EP". Mass Appeal. Archived from the original on September 13, 2015. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  6. Bassil, Ryan (August 12, 2014). "Is Spooky Black Going to Takeover the R&B Game?". Noisey. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  7. Terry, Josh (December 16, 2014). "Spooky Black shares new song "Worn" — listen". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  8. Mench, Chris (July 1, 2014). "Spooky Black "Without You" - The Best Songs of 2014 (So Far)". Complex. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  9. Flanagan, Andrew (November 10, 2014). "Spooky Black & The Stand4d Perform at NYC's SOBs - Billboard". Billboard. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  10. Moran, Justin (August 15, 2014). "PAPERMAG: Meet Spooky Black, He's Kinda Like a Cross Between Yung Lean and King Krule". Paper. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  11. Bills, Kyla (December 17, 2014). "PAPERMAG: Spooky Black Changes His Name And Releases "Worn"". Paper. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  12. Fischer, Reed (December 16, 2014). "Spooky Black Is Going By His Real Name Now". City Pages. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  13. Goldberg, Max (December 26, 2014). "Spooky Black "Without You" - 11 Songs That Made 2014 The Year of the Rap One-Hit Wonder". Complex. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  14. Frydenlund, Zach (November 6, 2014). "Stream and Download thestand4rd's New Album From Spooky Black, Allan Kingdom, Bobby Raps, and Psymun". Complex. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  15. Depdillinger (December 6, 2014). "TheStand4rd @ Varsity Theater [Recap]". Made. Retrieved December 23, 2016.
  16. Darville, Jordan (January 16, 2017). "Corbin a.k.a. Spooky Black Returns With New Track "Destrooy"". The Fader.
  17. Darville, Jordan (July 25, 2017). "Corbin (F.K.A. Spooky Black) Announces Tour With Shlohmo And D33J". The Fader.
  18. "Corbin FKA Spooky Black Announces Debut Album 'Mourn'". High Snobiety. August 25, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2018.
  19. Ant hony (October 13, 2017). "Janet - Spooky Black (Video Interlude) & What About (Live - San Diego)" – via YouTube.
  20. "Corbin – Wretch (Soundcloud)". SoundCloud. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  21. Corbin (July 12, 2019). "anything on corbin spotify tht not mourn or couch potato not me idk how log on". Twitter. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  22. "Corbin Smidzik". Spotify. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  23. "Corbin – Mourn 2016". Spotify. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  24. The Kid LAROI (Ft. Corbin) – NOT FAIR, retrieved September 20, 2020
  25. Future – Krazy but True, retrieved October 7, 2020
  26. NAV – Bag, retrieved October 7, 2020
  27. Dua Saleh – Warm Pants, retrieved October 7, 2020
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