WeezyWTF, D Smoke, Buddy and Eutel Wallace

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Red Bull Rap IQ Episode 3: Buddy, D Smoke, WeezyWTF and Eutel Wallace

Los Angeles rappers D Smoke and Buddy go head-to-head to answer hip-hop trivia with the help of Black Media expert WeezyWTF and on-air talent Eutel Wallace. Plus an exclusive interview with Buddy.

By WhyToby?

8 min readPublished on 05/16/2023 · 4:00 PM UTC

Red Bull Rap IQ is back with the third episode of the new series. This time we invited rappers D Smoke and Buddy, along with Black Media expert WeezyWTF and on-air talent Eutel Wallace to battle it out and see who’s the ultimate rap genius. Host Patrick Cloud keeps the score as two teams flex their hip-hop knowledge in multiple rounds of challenges and trivia.

Watch D Smoke, Buddy, WeezyWTF and Eutel Wallace in the full episode of Red Bull Rap IQ plus get to know Buddy, the star of this month's Red Bull Rap IQ and Red Bull Spiral in an interview below.

In this latest episode, we sat down with Buddy to hear about his experiences on both Red Bull Rap IQ and Red Bull Spiral.

Simmie Sims, or better known as Buddy has become a music staple. Growing up in Compton, he was always destined for music stardom. He was first introduced to music through his father who was a choir director, and honestly you can tell those gospel roots never left. Once he started taking music seriously, the city noticed. He linked up with iconic producer Pharrell who signed him to a record deal in his teens. From there Buddy began his journey to becoming one of California’s finest, which included becoming a favorite collaborator to one of his hometown’s biggest icons. We chopped it up with Buddy about his Red Bull Rap IQ and Red Bull Rap Spiral appearances and to hear about his musical journey.

Buddy on set at Red Bull Rap IQ
© JD Deputat

Buddy, we're going to start with the Red Bull Spiral rap cypher first. How do you feel about did LaRussell and Nana? Did they surprise you at all with the freestyles?

Buddy: I knew how they was coming. I listened to their raps, so it wasn't much of a surprise really. LaRussell always be rapping about business. And Nana, he'd be rapping about Inglewood.

So, they didn't catch you off guard at all? Because we remember one part of Nana's freestyle, one of his bars. He was talking about Twitter verification. He was like, "$8 verification? N****, go get a job." When he said that you went crazy. Why did that bar have you so hyped?

Because it was just the current event. The week we recorded this with Red Bull was like the week Twitter announced you could buy a blue check, and everybody started copping blue checks. It was the relevancy.

For your freestyles, do you ever fear about messing up?

Yeah, I feel like the beauty is in the hiccups and the mess ups, you know what I mean? So I leave room for it, honestly. It makes it more natural. Towards the end, I was like, “Oh, my God, I don't know what to say.” It was kind of a little shaky pause, but I came together with it.

Let’s get into Red Bull Rap IQ. The beginning of the episode you were shocked about Snoop and “fo’ shizzle.” Why was that so surprising to you? That Snoop didn't make that phrase.

I forgot E-40, man. I forgot about E-40. I thought Snoop coined it, which is why I said Snoop. But he’s another California legend, so it makes sense why it's still as popular.

One of our favorite answers during the Bounce the Track game was when they named West Side Boogie and you responded "ME." Talk to us about that track and how it came together.

Was it 4 The Record?

Yeah, it was 4 The Record! And it was so dope because when you said “me,” you guys were kind of stumped and you saved the round with that answer because they messed up and renamed J. Cole right after. Securing the points for your team.

Yeah, I did that record with Boogie a while ago. We grew up friends. We got a bunch of mutual friends. We went to high school close by each other. I didn't go to the same high school as him, but we were always around like the same high school and middle school. But yeah, Boogie was one of my older homies and then we had a bunch of mutual friends. We started rapping together. So once I had that record, we was both getting some traction in the industry. So, I sent him the record and he cut it and resent his vocals back.

WeezyWTF, D Smoke, Patrick Cloud, Buddy and Eutel Wallace
© JD Deputat

WeezyWTF, D Smoke, Buddy and Patrick Cloud
© JD Deputat

WeezyWTF, D Smoke and Patrick Cloud
© JD Deputat

Patrick Cloud, Buddy and Eutel Wallace

WeezyWTF, D Smoke, Patrick Cloud, Buddy and Eutel Wallace

D Smoke, Patrick Cloud, Buddy and Eutel Wallace

WeezyWTF, D Smoke and Patrick Cloud

You all played the forbidden word game. And one of our favorite parts was when your partner had to guess Chance the Rapper. Are you a huge Chance fan? Were you a fan of him during his SoundCloud era?

I got put on to Chance the Rapper from Chuck English. I used to kick it with Chuck English a lot. I still do that's my brother. And he was working with Chance at the time, and he had showed me his videos, and he was like "Yo there’s this kid from Chicago, he made a whole tape in ten days." The 10 Day tape.

Then I remember when Chance came to LA. And we were all hanging out at Chuck's house. So I got to meet him. We got to kick it. It was was more of like a peer respect that we had for each other.

One of the funniest parts of Red Bull Rap IQ was when the host asked "Yo, what does a rapper like to do the most?" So, we need to know as a rapper, what is a rapper's favorite thing to do? And don't say rap.

Get money.

Yeah, it’s every rapper's favorite thing. Honestly, it’s the best part of being a rapper. Getting money, getting the bag. Who doesn't love that?

D Smoke, Patrick Cloud, Buddy and Eutel Wallace
© JD Deputat

Sadly, D Smoke's team took the win. Right?

Dawg, y’all don’t even know how smart D Smoke is. He's a teacher. Bro speaks like five languages.

What? That's crazy. We didn't even know that.

D Smoke is a highly educated individual, and I just need to learn more. He inspires me to learn. Like I wanted to get back in the gym. I remember we went to the park and started boxing. Like we put the gloves on and everything! I ain’t gon lie, he hit me too hard one time.

What is something that people don't really know about D Smoke?

His whole family is musically inclined. His brother, his sister, his mother, his father. They be singing from the top of their lungs. On family holiday gatherings. They'll just take turns hopping on the piano. Somebody will play, somebody to sing, they'll harmonize. And his whole family is musically inclined. I feel like a lot of people don't know that. He comes from a big family of talent.

How was getting your first big deal with Pharrell and what did you learn from it? What was the biggest thing you learned from your first record deal?

It was tight. I remember that I was super eager and gung ho about it. I remember I had the option to either take a plane to Atlanta and take a meeting with Jermaine Dupree because he was interested in working with me or I could just drive to Hollywood and meet Pharrell. And this was before I ever been on a plane. I wasn't big on traveling, and I felt like a trip to Atlanta would take up a lot of time. So, we just drove up to Hollywood to kick it with Pharrell. Pharrell has always been the coolest, you know what I mean? With the BBC, Ice Cream and the chain, for sure. He (Pharell) always had the swag; you know what I mean? I pulled up with my mom. I just played him a couple of songs. He was super interested, and he was down to work. He wanted to get on contract.

Working with Pharell came with a lot of firsts. It was my first time in Miami and we was at South Beach Studios and then we was at the Circle House going up. That's when I started meeting other celebrities he would work with. Artists like Robin Thicke, Miley Cyrus, a bunch of random people, oh yeah Mac Miller too. I'm just like making all these new friends in the industry. One time even Snoop Dogg pulled up on me. Me and Snoop made a song. It was an amazing experience. I feel like back then was one of the last times I feel like artists went through artist development. That's not a thing anymore with artists.

The full episode of Red Bull Rap IQ is out now on Red Bull 1520.