Camu Tao

Education

On July 9, 2009, El-P announced via Twitter that the album, King of Hearts, was finished, and would be released on October 20, 2009.

Career

He was also part of Columbus, Ohio"s MHz crew with Copywrite, RJD2, Jakki Tha MotaMouth & Tage Proto. Partnering with Cage to form The Nighthawks, the two crafted an album during a single-three day creative session. Smith died on May 25, 2008, after a two-year battle with lung cancer.

At the time of his death, he was producing a song for Cage"s I Never Knew You European Parliament and working on his first solo for Definitive Jux.

King of Hearts was released on August 17, 2010 by Definitive Jux in collaboration with Fat Possum Records along with a free download European Parliament from Central Services. About the album, El-P said:

We all expected to get Camu in the studio and go as far as he wanted to go with the record.

The songs are bare, but then again a lot of them are just what he wanted. A lot of them wouldn’t have changed much.

Knowing Camu, he had a lot of talented musician friends he would have liked to have collaborated and have involved.

I do think the album would have been different had he lived to complete lieutenant Aesop Rock, also on Definitive Jux, stated in a 2008 interview with The Authorised Version Club that his next album may contain "a couple of songs about my friend Camu.". In his song, "Racing Stripes," Aesop reflects on Camu Tao near the end of his life.

Specifically, Aesop notes Camu"s unusual haircut, and the unusual new habits Camu had developed.

Achievements

• El-P, founder of the defunct Definitive Jux label, dedicated his album Cancer 4 Cure to his memory.

Membership

He was a member of several groups: South America Smash (with fellow rapper Metro), the underground hiphop supergroup Weathermen, Central Services (with fellow producer El-P), and the music collective Cardboard City.