Rickey Smiley’s Life Of Family, Food and Still Having Fun Making People Laugh
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When Rickey Smiley is inspired, you should just step aside and let the legendary funnyman cook. Stand-up comedy specials and tours, movies, nationally syndicated TV shows, and his own, long tenured nationally syndicated “The Rickey Smiley Morning Show” on the radio are all successes. The 55-year-old has always seemed to chef up popular content for over 30 years now (yes, he was on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam back in 1992). Today, he’s prepping another dish on his burner. Smiley is taping several episodes for his new podcast “The Rickey Smiley Podcast” in a swank, rented out mini mansion on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. Among his dozen guests today are two of ATL’s and music’s biggest hitmakers, producer Jazze Pha and history breaking songwriter, producer and performer Sean Garrett.
Smiley doesn’t just want to greet the people he’s interviewing with his signature grin, he wants to leave a lasting impression and surprise them. Rickey Smiley is inspired, his team besides a couple of cameramen are wisely standing aside and letting him cook, literally. What some of his fans may not know is that among his many talents, Smiley gets busy in the kitchen. This last menu he’s putting together includes cornbread, collard greens (with turkey, no pork) and his secret weapon pinto beans.
“These are some good ass pinto beans,” Garrett—the man who Jay-Z himself nicknamed “The Pen” because of his writing of songs for artists such as Beynce, Usher, Rihanna, The Pussycat Dolls, and many others— boasts after sampling a tablespoon full. “Gotdamn, these are good.”
“It’s all about seasoning! Seas-Uh-Neeng bro,” Smiley, who admits he has aspirations of opening a restaurant that has about “eight or nine tables, then expanding from there,” would explain later. “Cause a bean is a bean. But how do you season it though?”
Several weeks later, Smiley has his family and friends over at his Alabama estate as he helmed the kitchen duties for Thanksgiving. Let’s just say your favorite professional bistro has got nothing on Casa De Smiley. The menu included:
Rotisserie smoked and oil-less fried turkeys, honey baked ham, Chicken and dumplings, Gumbo with collard greens, Mac and cheese, Sweet potato pie with Mac and cheese on top. The aforementioned collard greens with smoked turkey and pinto beans with smoked turkey and Conecuh sausage, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, rolls, cornbread, of course cranberry sauce as well as an assortment of desserts are all served.
The day after, Smiley let’s nothing go to waste as he uses the left over cornbread dressing and mixes it with lump crab meat and added seared shrimp on top.
This Thanksgiving was especially reflective for Smiley and his family as it was the first one they experienced since Brandon Smily, Rickey’s oldest son and eldest of four children passed away on January 29th this year. Smiley was very forthcoming during his appearance on the Today Show in early March, speaking about his son’s history of drug abuse and how he tried to always intervene. Brandon Smiley was doing well, looked to have shaken his addiction and just joined the church about a month before passing away from an overdose.
While the loss of his son has been difficult to reconcile, Smiley has managed to continue his career of making people smile everyday on the radio, tv and social media. He’s been an inspiration to his fans.
Here, he talks his next goals in his personal life, why his Dish Nation co-host Da Brat’s music still bangs (as does 8Ball and MJGs) and why comedians are competitive like rappers.
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VIBE: Peace my brother. How are you?
Rickey Smiley: I’m doing great. Blessed man. Thank you for the opportunity.
It’s a pleasure to sit down with the legendary Ricky Smiley…
I wish I was a legend. Don’t start, come on man (laughing).
You’ve been doing this since 1989. We had a chance to go see your tour in ATL in October. It was great.
You came out and saw some of the craziness for yourself.
You featured some up-and-coming comics. That’s been your forte for a while now. What is it like for you to be in that position where you can introduce the world and all of these different audiences to new comics that you’re coming across?
That’s a blessing to be able to put somebody on and give somebody an opportunity because somebody put me on. You got Steve [Harvey], Ced [The Entertainer], Carl Strong, George Wallace, a lot of those guys I used to open for. John Henton! A lot of people gave me opportunities back when I first started. So you have to pay it forward, put guys on—they got talent, they’re funny—and bring ’em on stage. Let ’em kick your butt.
They’re all kicking my butt on stage. I love it. ‘Cause it challenges you, it makes you better. Yeah. You don’t want to be the funniest one all the time. When they coming out there, bringing that smoke, then, you know, you gotta bring that smoke too.
[Rappers] are very, very competitive when it comes to the stage when it comes to getting on the mic. Yet, comedians, you guys are ultra competitive as well. I’ll be looking on these interviews and see different comedians going back and forth, throwing their jabs.
But in the 90’s, it was in fun. For the most part, most comedians that I’m seeing, they seem to get along, but you know, you have your little dust storms in the comedy game. I try to avoid that ’cause Lord knows I have enough drama in my life. I don’t need that. ‘Cause all comedians have their own fan bases and you don’t want to be saying nothing reckless about anybody. Then here come them and the fans.
[In the 90s] comedy, especially Black comedy, was just exploding in a whole different way. You had Def Comedy Jam, which you were on, you had Martin Lawrence and his show, Eddie Murphy still was doing this thing at the top of the box office. And just all these comedians like Chris Tucker, Bernie Mac, and so many others that have now gone on to be legends started to emerge. You was with that class.
Yeah, man, I started in ’89. I started November 13th, 1989. So it’s been 34 years in the game. Coming up in the nineties, man, you had to grind. You had to perform in nightclubs, family reunions, standing in the middle of someone’s living room. Somebody give you a check for $150. Me, meeting all those challenges, driving up in the mountains of West Virginia in a ’79 Cutless. Wow. Yeah. A plane ticket wasn’t heard of. We didn’t start getting plane tickets until after like ’93, ’94. But between ’89 and then, I was driving to those damn gigs. I remember driving 12 hours for just $300. Coming back, you’d clear just about $65 after paying for gas and snacks.
What was the motivation at the time for you? Was it to get the exposure, was it to work out your routine and perfect it?
It was the exposure, it was the stage time. You just appreciated having the opportunity to be on stage. You wanted it, it was fun. Comedy was definitely sacred back then, even though the game has changed. In the 90s, it was a lot of fun.
I see a direct coalition between what you guys were doing in comedy and what was going on in Hip-Hop. Black comedy in the ’90s was blowing up bigger than ever. Hip-Hop in the ’90s was blowing up bigger than ever. Busta, Jay-Z, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe, Wu-Tang, so many more. Of course Biggie and Pac are still here in spirit. A lot of people say the 90s was the best time in hip-hop…
Agree!!!
I was going to say, it’s tough to argue that.
The ’90s was fun and everything felt safe. Now, you have to be particular about if you’re going to go hang out at a comedy club, depending on what city you are in and who’s performing and what the crowd is. What’s the vibe? A lot of times it’s not, it’s not even safe to go. It has nothing to do with comedy, but nobody wants to get their car broken into or get targeted or whatever.
One of the guys that, that you give credit to being a mentor is Steve Harvey. Steve to me is probably the Jay-Z of comedy, because not only has he amassed a stellar catalog; comedy, specials movies, TV. shows left and right. All these great bodies of work. But he’s also killing it on the business side as well. You say Steve taught you a lot about comedy and business early on. Tell me about that business.
He kinda helped me as I made my transition into radio. I already had the discipline and the structure and the respect. That’s one of the things that he liked about me. I was quiet, speak when spoken to, I was not [acting] entitled. I was just happy to have an opportunity. Most of the comedians I put on are like that as well. Quiet, appreciate the opportunity, grateful, respectful. I ain’t never had any issues outta any of these young comics. I just love ‘em. B. Simone, the Jess Hilarious, the Darien Brand, Alton Walker, all of these guys, man, it’s just a pleasure to work with them. Chico Bean, DC Young Fly, man. I love them. I love their work. They’re great artists. I love “Wild-N-Out.” I love what Nick Cannon is doing for comedy.
I started in the ’90s, but you can’t be stuck in the ’90s. You have to make adjustments to the culture. You have to make adjustments to the act. You have to also know who your audience is. My audience is 25-54, that’s the same demographic as my radio show. You don’t want to be the uncle that’s trying to fit in. Just be the uncle. People love the uncle. But if you come with some skinny jeans on and the Dallas Cowboys jersey tucked in with a belt on, you’re the uncle that’s trying to fit in.
Rickey, I gotta get your five of your favorite hip-hop records.
Oooh! Don’t do me like that! You talking about the top five? Still playing 8Ball and MJG, that “You Don’t Want No Drama.” Gotta talk about Jeezy “I Put On.” You gotta play [that]. You gotta play Future “Same Damn Time.” You gotta play C-Murder out of all songs. Any time a song will make you grab a trash can and throw it down. “Down For My…” Then you got “Swag Surf,” that’s a big hip-hop song. Then you got “Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Hov!” Da Brat, the first female rapper to sell over a million records. The whole Jermaine catalog.
What’s one album, that you say you played the most over the past 20, 30 years?
Outkast man. I’m sorry man. I’m sorry. Everything on there is a damn hit.. See, I live in Birmingham. That’s two hours from Atlanta. We are in Atlanta too. Atlanta claims us. We went to Atlanta every weekend. Outkast bruh, stop playing with me. Amazing.
Them guys are incredible. So you got the radio show, hopefully we get the Rickey Smiley restaurant coming. You have the “Rickey Smiley Podcast,” that just started. More tours. What else is going on with you? What else you got coming up?
Man, just trying to push these grandkids on the swing, man. That’s it. Being 55, I don’t have nothing else to prove. I’m enjoying, going to therapy, trying to get my life back on track.
100%. God bless with that my brother.
Yeah, man, appreciate it. And, and that’s my life. Just trying to have a better relationship… My grandkids enjoy doing what I do, working. I try not to do too much because too much takes you from away from everything that you love. So just try, try to, try to pull back a little bit and just try to enjoy life a little bit, you know what I’m saying?
I gotta applaud you so much man. Because we know that, you’ve had a family tragedy and you have just maintained and just been a, a steady, positive force in all our lives. Everyday we can turn on the radio or turn on the tv or look at social media and you’re right there being positive, inspirational, I’ve even seen you pray for some people and you’re also there making us laugh. You’re appreciated.
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