D. Smith

About

D. Smith (born July 20, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter, reality television personality, and documentary filmmaker. She worked on Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III, which was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2009 Grammy Awards and won Best Rap Album. In 2016, she made her reality-tv debut on season five of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta.
Her debut documentary Kokomo City (2023) follows four Black transgender sex workers and premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

D. Smith was born to a religious family in Miami, Florida where she fell in love with music through church. She wrote her first song at ten years old for her church choir. By seven years old, she knew she was transgender and often fell asleep praying to wake up as a woman.
She graduated high school and moved to New York City, New York where she began pursuing a career in music.

In Brooklyn, New York, Smith pursued her music career as a producer and collaborated with singer-songwriter Stacey Barthe. Together, they worked with several artists, including Lil’ Wayne. In 2008, D. Smith produced and sang on the track “Shoot Me Down” for Lil Wayne’s rap album Tha Carter III. For her…