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Ernest

Ernest Keith Smith is a musician with a dual personality. As Ernest K., he established himself as a country-rapper whose work reflected his love of hip-hop as well as his Tennessee roots. Later, billing himself as ERNEST, he eased off of his rap influences and instead showed off his skills as a singer and songwriter, penning tunes for Florida Georgia Line, Morgan Wallen, and Chris Lane. ERNEST also nurtured an audience for his own recordings that portrayed the diversity of Southern life, from the ups and downs of love to the easygoing good times of a Saturday night, and his singing revealed a soft, heartfelt twang that brought out the sincerity in his lyrics. He made the jump from rap to contemporary country on the 2019 album Locals Only, and found more room for his sentimental side on 2022's Flower Shops, which featured the hit single of the same name. 2024's double album Nashville, Tennessee showed the breadth of his country side and featured guests like Lukas Nelson and Lainey Wilson. Ernest Keith Smith grew up in Nashville, and his passion for music presented itself at an early age. He learned to play guitar and banjo as a child, and he was introduced to R&B and hip-hop in third grade through the soundtrack album to the movie Space Jam. Not long afterward, a friend burned Ernest a mix CD of tracks by Eminem, and from there he started learning the finer points of writing and performing raps. In his teens, he drew influences from country, rap, and alternative rock artists. At the age of 19, he experienced a brush with death when a viral infection led to a heart attack, and during his time in college he fell into a cycle of drug abuse. He returned to Nashville to sort out his life, and made a valuable friend in Matt Royer, a fellow musician whose sister Ernest was dating. Royer had a home recording studio, and together they began writing and recording tracks that reflected both their love of hip-hop and their Southern roots. Ernest's country-oriented material earned him a songwriting deal with noted publisher Sony/ATV, and he collaborated on the song "Dig Your Roots," recorded by Florida Georgia Line in 2016. Ernest still had ambitions as a performer, and in April 2017 he released his debut single, a gritty rap titled "Dopeman." He issued another track, a more romantic number titled "Bad Boy," the following September. While his reputation as a rapper continued to grow, he began hitting pay dirt as a songwriter, and helped compose a growing number of major country hits including "I Love My Country" by Florida Georgia Line, "Breaking Up Was Easy in the '90s" by Sam Hunt, and "Big Big Plans" by Chris Lane. As his songwriting became increasingly dominated by his country influences, he devised the alter ego ERNEST (all capital letters) to distinguish the more traditional country material from his country-rap tracks. He debuted his new persona on the 2019 album Locals Only, and the following year he scored a hit with "Cheers," a tribute to Southern life that matched a banjo to an R&B-style rhythm track. ERNEST also found a kindred spirit in another country artist with a passion for hip-hop and R&B, Morgan Wallen. ERNEST became one of Wallen's go-to co-writers, and he contributed to ten songs on Wallen's 2021 breakthrough Dangerous: The Double Album. Wallen returned the favor when ERNEST began work on his next album, appearing on the title cut of the 2022 LP Flower Shops. The song became a major hit, and while it was holding its own on country radio, ERNEST found he was competing with himself as a number he wrote for Kane Brown, "One Mississippi," rose to the top of the Country airplay charts. ERNEST ended the year with a trio of his own singles including the poignant "Songs We Used to Sing." In 2023 he appeared on Wallen's platinum-selling album One Thing at a Time. His next full-length, 2024's Nashville, Tennessee, was his lengthiest (at 26 tracks) and most unabashedly country-driven effort to date and featured guests like Lukas Nelson, Lainey Wilson, and Jelly Roll, who dueted on the song "I Went to College / I Went to Jail."
© Mark Deming /TiVo
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