You may have caught Smiley recently in Drake’s Instagram stories, working out with The Boy himself. Now, the Toronto rapper is back with his latest flex: a music video for his new single “In My Zone.”
His first new music of 2021, the track finds the Warner signee rapping in his trademark laconic, stream-of-consciousness flow over a looming trap beat by Dj Charlie B, Elxyee, and KFHITMAKER. “She wanna be known/I wanna be in my zone,” he spits on the hook.
The visuals see Smiley and his crew post up at an all-night diner, immediately attracting the establishment’s female clientele to their table for some food and conversation. Things then take a turn as we cut to a gym, where the rapper goes full Tony Horton, giving a motivational speech at a whiteboard before leading an intense workout session with the ladies, helping them burn off the pizza and wings ingested at the beginning of the video.
The scene is a clear nod to Smiley’s newfound health regimen, which he’s been showcasing via motivational posts on social media as of late. Good on the guy.
The new track is a follow-up to his 2020 mixtape and major label debut YYZ-LAX, named after the airports on his back-and-forth trips between Toronto and California.
The rapper rose to prominence in 2018 after Drake posted lyrics from his song “Intro” on Instagram. Since then, Drizzy’s given him several more co-signs, listing him as an influence on 2018’s Scorpion and shouting him out as one of his favourite artists from the city during his Rap Radar interview a couple years ago.
We’re told Smiley has a bevvy of new drops on the way in the lead-up to Buy. or. Bye 2, the sequel to his 2018 breakout project. “I’m going to get more personal on the album about a lot of things,” he told Complex in an interview. “I’ve been working on it and thinking, ‘Buy. or. Bye 2, is this album gonna change my life?’ I just feel like this is the one. So I have to talk about stuff and just let it all out. I’ve got to level-up and get to the big leagues.”
