And that's why from an early age I wanted to tell very detailed stories about Black women's lives. When I would read stories about the Beatles or Sly and the Family Stone, or any of those iconic groups from my mom's era, there would be so much detail about what kind of shampoo Paul McCartney used or the thigh-high books that Sly Stone had on–“What were they made of? And where did he purchase them?” Then you would read the stories about the women artists at that time–which were so often written by male writers–and the detail just wasn't there. I remember as a high school student, I was thinking, “Maybe I could have this job because Black woman journalists that were known for going on the road with bands, and stuff like that were few and far between. There's also this fight to be seen, and to be remembered again in detail. You journal about it, and you work toward a situation like this when you can try to connect the dots.Īs you say, there's this fight to be heard. It was one of the reasons the book took so long….I've noticed that over the course of my career as a journalist, you don't always feel comfortable when you're writing a profile of someone else, jumping in with all of your personal business and story. Your experiences and that of your subjects kind of parallel each other in the sense of fighting to be heard. You seamlessly interweave the stories of these legendary musical figures with your own personal story of growing up in Oakland and embarking on the path to music journalism. I think firsts are quite important, but I think sometimes they can be flattening to the idiosyncrasies of personality, in achievement and often in tragedy. I wanted to tell them in a very particular and detailed way. I've always been mortified by how Black women in music do not receive the credit that they’re due. You always want to give somebody your playlist or burn somebody a CD–or, in my case, write somebody a review or tell somebody a story about music. That's what music in a lot of ways does for us. Smith: When you're a person like myself who loves music in a very intense way, I'm always looking for ways to express and share that love.

This interview with Smith has been edited for length and clarity. Originally published last year, Shine Bright was recently printed in paperback.

Shine bright danyel smith