Twenty-seven-year-old Myles Alexander Keaton Smith is behind “hip-hōp” (pronounced hip-hope), a genre of music he says shows that people can own their “individuality and swagger without crossing the boundaries of disrespect.” Known as Humble G Tha Fiddla because he’s a “humble guy” who plays the violin and raps, the largely self-taught artist has been sharing the importance of self-awareness, positivity, respect and education on a “Stop the Hate” school tour. Introduced to our own Stop the Hate®: Youth Speak Out through Museum board member Albert Ratner, the Cleveland musician immediately felt a connection to the initiative. “I thought, ‘That is definitely what I am all about,’” says Humble G. I recently had the opportunity to talk to him extensively about his music and his mission.
Tell me a little bit about your musical background.
I was introduced to instruments when I was 11. I was going to Greenview in South Euclid/Lyndhurst and they showed us all these different instruments. They had woods, brass and percussion laid out there in the cafeteria. If you didn’t see anything there that interested you, they took you into another room with the classical string instruments. The last kid who performed played the violin and I just really liked it. I picked it up, but I didn’t really stay in that school system very long. I was there maybe a whole school year. When my mom lost her jobs—she had two at the time—we moved back to Cleveland. I went to Nathan Hale then. They had a music history-type class there, but not a music program. Anyway, when the progress reports came out, I had a failing grade. My mom found that unacceptable. She felt my teacher couldn’t have be connecting with me as a student. She went up there and told him, “You must not know my son very well because he loves music.” The teacher asked me some questions then in front of everyone . . . how to draw simple notes and things like that. I knew all of it but he still claimed I hadn’t been paying attention all quarter. She told me to bring my violin to class for “show and tell.” Long story short, it shocked him. He was finally introduced to the real me, I guess. He ended up writing an apology letter to my mom and eventually referred me to Cleveland School of the Arts. I went there for two years and I played wherever—feels like it was maybe a thousand performances—until I was introduced to Mr. Albert Ratner. He wanted to see me go further. He just enjoyed how I played. He had me take all these tests and play for people like Dick Bogomolny at Severance Hall. He put me in front of Joel Smirnoff, the President at Cleveland Institute of Music. He’s also a Grammy Award winner. He gives me lessons but now we’re kind of like homeboys too. Sometimes we just kick it and drink water and talk for hours and then play for like an hour. I take some classes there in music theory there too.
Your mom sounds like she was an exceptional lady. What sort of imprint did she leave on you?
I was really open to things because I had a different upbringing than a lot of the kids I knew. Of course, I didn’t understand that until I was older. I kind of assumed that everyone had this sort of youth with a respect for God and love and morals, you know? She gave me a very strong spiritual and moral background. That strong family early on really made me the person I am today. That’s why I was able to be interested in music and open to an instrument like the violin. In high school my grandpa made me choose . . . football or the violin. I picked the violin and he bought me one. When I became an entertainer, my mom used a whole two paychecks to get me what I needed. She really wanted to be sure I took it to the next level. I think people around me were surprised by it. Where I grew up, I was subject to some name calling, especially because I was 320 pounds in high school and I played football. But here I was this big, insecure boy who wasn’t insecure on the violin at all.
Were you tempted to throw your weight around when someone got in your face?
They didn’t go too far. They probably thought, “He’s a little big, I shouldn’t test him.” Luckily I didn’t have a temper. They really did say some things that hurt my feelings but it never pushed me to want to fight anybody.
How would you describe your sound?
I would describe my sound now as a movement. It’s different in the sense of why I make the music I make and the focus of it. It’s life-changing music, from my violin playing to my lyrics. I’ve been playing so long now that there are teenagers and kids in college who let me know that they’re playing music because they saw me when they were little bitty kids and it inspired them. This music shows them that you can be cool and love hip-hop and own your individuality and swagger without crossing the boundaries of disrespect. It’s something that’s true, not something that is an illusion. All they see is fake stuff on TV being portrayed as real success. They think maybe they’ll become a dope dealer and get all the money. Do you know any dope boys who ever became successful? I don’t. They might have been able to get some Jordans in high school but eventually they go away and then when they get out they can’t do much. The celebrities that kids see are acting—they’re entertainers portraying this person with no limits to get checks. Some people I guess might see my music as a hybrid because I mix a lot of sounds together. Whatever you call it, at the end of the day I just really want to be an inspiration to others. That’s my mission. It’s hard for me to put a label on exactly what it is. We say “hip-hōp” or, when we’re in schools, “edutainment.” But I say it’s life-changing. I am here to be an example, most definitely, in music. So, if I am able to blow up and create my own lane, I’ll be able to help so many others who need this sort of example out there so they can take it further.
Talk about your work with the schools.
I’ve been working with the schools for a long time now. It’s been more recently with this “stop the hate” tour and message. I have a lot of music, but when you’re working with students, you can’t just pick any song just because it’s positive and it sounds good. It has to convey what you’re trying to get across. Every song relays a message. You don’t want to sound like a preacher up there rapping, though. Little kids are easier for me to perform for. High schoolers think they are grown anyway and, no disrespect to high schoolers, but many of them are out there experimenting with adult things anyway. Many of them don’t really want to hear from anyone, but we go up there and talk about stopping the hate and bullying. There are many different types of hate in the world but the one most of these kids are dealing with in school is bullying. And today, cyberbullying is the worst. Kids are bullying each other on the internet. You can be in a classroom and the kids could all be on a chat together. They can share a photo or say something bad about another student and have the whole school district laughing about it and the teacher could not have a clue. It makes it worse. Kids commit suicide or take their anger out in schools because cyberbullying and we talk a lot about that. Then we do some music. At the end of my song about stopping hate there is a Catholic prayer, an Islamic prayer, a Jewish cantor and a Buddhist prayer of peace all going on. When there’s this long note that is held, the kids get quiet. They stand up and start clapping at this dramatic moment when they think it’s over. That’s when the beat drops and all the dancers come out and everyone goes crazy. Turns out the song they like the most is the song that is most on message. It’s really great. I love it. As an artist, you want to engage people and when better to that then when they’re in an impressionable mindset? All the artists you love you most likely started to listen to when you were young. So, here they are receptive to a message and I have a good one for them.
How do the kids respond to that message?
I’ve found that kids are positive by nature, really. What I am getting from the kids is they don’t want to be bullied and they don’t want to bully. They really don’t want to act this way, but this is their reality. This is what they see all the time. Also, it hurts them to believe that the older generation has no faith in them. They want people to have more faith in them and to set better examples. We expect them not to act out but they see it on TV every day with some rich reality star. I come into their school looking like them and being from their neighborhood, but I bring something different. It’s a violin and anti-hate songs, but the beats are banging and they see someone being an individual. It brings purpose to what I do. It’s good for the kids. It’s definitely good for me. And it’s good for the community. When we are old it’s going to be these kids who are running things.
So, is being our best self what you want them to take away from your school show?
I want them to realize they can do so much with their lives. I lived in the hood. I’ve had some of these battles myself, although not as strong because my mom was always on me. But when you’re young all you know of the world is this little place. You think that’s how things are everywhere. You may be someone who wants to do things differently but you feel isolated. But if you do get educated and do excel, once you get older you’ll realize there are actually a lot of people like you. There are so many good kids I know who got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. They end up ruining their lives. We just want to show them something different. And we want them to learn how they can help stop the bullying.
One of the biggest challenges we have in America is that we’re not educated about ourselves. I don’t mean learning about different races or being trained at a job—not that those are bad things. But we’re not educated about what we are, who we are, when we are or where we are. There are people in our society who are walking around down because they feel like they have no purpose. We need to start educating our youth on self-awareness. We can train people for jobs, but it’s very hard to train people who don’t even know themselves. It’s easier to teach a young kid about life and who they are than it is to teach a grown man the same thing.
