| Camu Tao | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Tero Smith |
| Born | June 26, 1977 |
| Origin | Columbus, Ohio, United States |
| Died | May 25, 2008 (aged 30) |
| Genres | Hip hop |
| Occupations | Producer, rapper, singer |
| Years active | 1997–2008 |
| Labels | Definitive Jux |
| Associated acts | S.A. Smash The Weathermen Central Services Nighthawks MHz |
| Website | Definitive Jux - Bio |
Camu Tao (born Tero Smith, June 26, 1977 – May 25, 2008[1]) was an American rapper and producer who was signed to the Definitive Jux label. He was a member of several groups: S.A. Smash (with fellow rapper Metro), the underground hiphop supergroup Weathermen, Central Services (with fellow producer El-P), and the music collective Cardboard City.
He was also part of Columbus, Ohio's MHz crew with Copywrite, RJD2, Jakki Tha MotaMouth & Tage Proto. Partnering with Cage to form The Nighthawks, the two crafted an album during a single-three day creative session.[2]
Smith died on May 25, 2008, after a two-year battle with lung cancer.[1] At the time of his death, he was producing a song for Cage's I Never Knew You EP and working on his first solo for Definitive Jux. On July 9, 2009, El-P announced via Twitter that the album, King of Hearts, was finished, and would be released on October 20, 2009.[3] King of Hearts was released on August 17, 2010 by Definitive Jux in collaboration with Fat Possum Records along with a free download EP from Central Services.[4] About the album, El-P said:
We all expected to get Camu in the studio and go as far as he wanted to go with the record. The songs are bare, but then again a lot of them are just what he wanted. A lot of them wouldn’t have changed much. Knowing Camu, he had a lot of talented musician friends he would have liked to have collaborated and have involved. I do think the album would have been different had he lived to complete it.
Aesop Rock, also on Definitive Jux, stated in a 2008 interview with The A.V. Club that his next album may contain "a couple of songs about my friend Camu."[5]
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