Super Smash Broz Deliver Their Definition Of Hometown Musical Unification With ‘Family Cookout’

Family cookouts are a staple of celebratory summer afternoons. Most are filled with the usual cast of characters bonded by family and years of friendships, but some of the best gatherings occur when new, yet familiar faces are invited to join in on the fun. This is the essence of Super Smash Broz’s newly released compilation project aptly titled Family Cookout. The tape features over 20 Massachusetts-based artists and producers joining forces with the mission of highlighting the wide array of talent thriving within the state.

There are not many other DJ’s from the area more equipped than the Super Smash Broz (consisting of DJ Fre$co and DJ Nomz) to take on this important responsibility. With a true pulse of the sounds moving the culture, the Roxbury-raised brothers garnered substantial attention for their Get Your Vibes Right mix series and put in hard work to earn the resources at their disposal. But rather than simply leverage fruitful relationships, Super Smash Broz broadened the scope of Family Cookout by taking the executive producer role seriously, organizing studio sessions with artists from different areas/neighborhoods (who may have only previously known each other by name) with the intention of creating quality and perhaps unexpected collaborations.

Singles such as “Adjacent” (ft. Maye Star & Child), “A Friend Indeed” (ft. Izo) and the heavily Boston-embraced “Still” (ft. Big Leano & Vintage Lee) revealed a glimpse of Super Smash Broz’s mission of offering artistic variation and worldly, cross-genre sonic influences. The release of Family Cookout last week solidified their goal, with lively sets at House Of Blues’ Foundation Room and innovative/family-centric listening sessions propelling an impressive roll-out reaching all types of Boston music supporters.

As a full body of work, Family Cookout prides itself on unwavering energy and diversity. Commanding offerings such as project intro “It’s Different” (ft. Reem Skully & Dutchy DoBad) and “Replay Interlude” (ft. Jefe Replay) appease listeners seeking speaker-knocking grittiness while more laid-back tracks “Give It To Her” (ft. Alejandro Blanco) and “Confused” (ft. Wizz Dakota, Gin Mason & Alejandro Blanco) provide smooth island flavor and even better exemplify Super Smash Broz shining a spotlight on fresh, ‘not your typically mentioned’ hometown talent.

By staying true in their motivations to promote musical unification, SuperSmashBroz have delivered a compilation in the best sense of the word with Family Cookout and it’s safe to say they will be working hard to keep its momentum going in the coming months. Read below to check out our interview with Super Smash Broz, where we get an even better idea of what Family Cookout means to them.

Thanks for taking the time to talk and for being the first guests at The Bunker. To kick things off, when did you guys officially decide to turn Family Cookout into a reality. Was there a particular moment that sparked the process?

SSB: The momentum from us, Boston, the artists…the timing of all that was key. Can’t really pinpoint a moment, but the city got to a point where new artists were emerging and we were constantly discovering new people. Get Your Vibes Right built things up and at around #5, they really noticed and from that success, we knew we were ready for something more tangible.

From sets at the Foundation Room, innovative listening sessions in the Seaport, to family celebrations at Bodega, the widely embraced roll-out of Family Cookout has been impressive. What were your motivations and strategies into earning the buzz you achieved leading up the project?

SSB: Seeing the success of others and soaking in knowledge from mutiple areas. We observed different ideas and molded them into our own. That really inspired and motivated us to be more creative with how we rolled things out, especially how we chose unique platforms for each of the singles, which were musically diverse and had different styles. People say things about the cliques here, so we purposely made sure to avoid that by doing the unexpected and just putting out music we liked from artists we are fans of.

Along those lines, I want to get more into the variety of artists and producers on the project. You could have played it more safe and kept things confined to a closer circle of artists such as Michael Christmas, OG Swaggerdick, Vintage Lee, etc. And while everyone plays an important role, some of the most rewarding songs contain features from people like Alejandro Blanco and Wizz Dakota. How were you able to bring different artists with unique preferences/styles/tastes together to create the right final product?

SSB: Our ears and trusting that. Sometimes the song or production may not have been the style the artist expected, but we were able to guide them in a direction outside their comfort zone and they trusted us throughout the process based off the strength of what we’ve done. The versatility of the artists and keeping things organic in the studio sessions resulted in good energy. It’s been dope to see different artists meet each other for the first time at release parties and now they’re really rocking with each other.

On a compilation project of this extent with so many different people involved, is there a particular song you are most proud of in terms of how the record came to be?

SSB: Definitely “Half Steps” (ft. Nick Gray, Michael Christmas & Nyce Franklyn). It was the dopest session and the longest session. Rich played the beat, Nick and Christmas went in then Nyce Franklyn stepped up and killed it. It was the first song that set the tone for the whole project and was a learning experience for us to remember how the creative process can work/vary depending on the situation.

Lastly, what’s your overall mission for Family Cookout now that it’s out and what do you hope it achieves in the long run?

SSB: To shed light on the artists and diversity of talent in the city and help propel New England to get on a national level, sort of like how Chicago has done it. We don’t want people to think of just the same few names or one type of genre when it comes to Boston. This is for a cross mix of audiences, every person should like at least 2 songs on here. It’s for the culture..for us, by us.

Be sure to give Family Cookout a listen below and keep up with the music of all the artists/producers who appear on the project!