Gerard Smith

Smith was busking in a Brooklyn subway when he was recruited by TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe in 2003. Smith recalled in an interview: I saw Tunde in the movie Jump Tomorrow on IFC. And I was super addicted to film at that time. A year later, I was playing on the subway platform here, at the Bedford stop, and he kept giving me money. Then it finally clicked, and I said, 'Dude you were in that movie! I loved that movie!' That film had meant a lot to me, especially because there was a black actor that wasn't in the ghetto, and there weren't a lot of politics. He was being a human being and not only a black actor. Smith played on the critically acclaimed albums Return to Cookie Mountain, Dear Science, and Nine Types of Light. Aside from writing music and playing bass and keyboards in TV on the Radio, Smith, along with Adebimpe, composed the score for the 2010 documentary feature The Lottery, (now Success Academy Harlem).

• Name — Gerard Smith • Birth Name — Gerard Anthony Smith • Born — 20 September 1974 • Died — 20 April 2011 • Genre — * Experimental rock • indie rock • Instrument — * Bass guitar • keyboards • guitar • sitar • Associated Acts — * TV on the Radio • Midnight Masses • A Rose Parade