Charlie Smarts

Depending on how you look at it, if your first name is Charlie, this year may have proven itself to be a rather, well, triumphant one. Raleigh emcee Charlie Smarts (or Alex Thompson) has spent a fair amount of his time during the past several years as one of the lead rappers for two Raleigh-based hip-hop troops, Kooley High and Inflowential. Winning was his way of life long before it was a hashtag.

Smarts—the youngest of three siblings who are all musicians (saxophonist, Bluford Thompson Jr. and vocalist Erica Thompson)—attended N.C. State University, where he and Kooley High members Tab-One, Rapsody, Foolery, The Sinopsis and DJ Ill Digitz decided to form their group after working closely together in a campus hip-hop organization known as H20. Around the same time, Charlie Smarts linked up with a few more like-minded college buddies to form Inflowential. Kooley High's energetic, live performances and DIY work ethic helped them build a strong hometown fanbase, eventually seeing the release of a couple of mixtapes (Raleigh's Finest, Kooley Is High) and two albums (Summer Sessions EP and Eastern Standard Time LP). Simultaneously, Inflowential would continue to substantiate itself as an enjoyable live band, touring the country and grabbing some prestige along the way, like first place in MTVU's 2008 Nationwide Battle of the Bands competition. Smart's role in both of these crews as a lead emcee offered each group just the right amount of charming, left-field wordplay.

In 2009, before relocating to New York and releasing Kooley High's debut album, Eastern Standard Time, Smarts released his solo project, f'alex. For the first time, Smarts had the microphone to himself, and he used the opportunity to parade a generous amount of artful giddiness and Kid Cudi-like plays on melody, scarcely heard on recordings by Kooley High and Inflow. Standout tracks like "Ms. America" and "Put You On" proved that Charlie Smarts could carry his own load in whichever conscious, player-istic, imaginative direction his mind would roam. —Eric Tullis