Weed rap New Yorker Smoke DZA has been fond of releasing collaborative projects in the past few years. Whether it be multiple with frequent collaborator 183rd for their Ringside series, fellow marijuana enthusiast Curren$y or Griselda frontman Benny The Butcher, Smoke DZA loves to bring variety on his tapes with other artists.
On Feb. 4, he linked up with Real Bad Man for their new tape Mood Swings. Real Bad Man is a producer, famed for his work with Griselda's Boldy James on their December 2020 Real Bad Boldy mixtape. As he executively produced Mood Swings, Real Bad Man explained how this project was a long time coming: "Mood Swings came about in a very natural way. I’d been a fan of Smoke for a minute and wanted to work with him. I had some tracks in mind that I thought he’d sound great over, he’s got such a distinct vocal tone that I wanted the beats to compliment that tone sonically. I sent over beats and we started recording right away. I wanted this project to be quintessential Smoke DZA, just through my lens.”
The tape contains seven songs with multiple features from Flee Lord, frequent collaborator Nym Lo, Ot The Real and others. DZA discussed how the motivation behind the project came from selling weed during during COVID: "I was going through a lot of different emotions during the pandemic. Being legally able to sell weed on the west coast was inspiring. Badman and I created this project during that, and because his beats were so dope, Mood Swings became a perfect title for the project."
To accompany Mood Swings, Smoke DZA and Real Bad Man also put out a music video for the sixth song "Casualties."
Check out the whole tape Mood Swings by Smoke DZA and Real Bad Man below,