Jay Smooth

Who is Jay Smooth?

John Randolph, better known by his deejay name Jay Smooth, is the founder of New York City's longest-running hip hop radio program, WBAI's Underground Railroad.

He is also known for blogging on the website hiphopmusic.com and hosting Ill Doctrine, a hip hop video blog. Ill Doctrine features Smooth's commentary on hip hop, politics, and social justice as in the "Soulja Boy Presidential Debate Remix" or the spot "How to Tell People They Sound Racist". Smooth also occasionally provides music commentary on NPR, and founded one of the world's first hip-hop websites, hiphopmusic.com.

The son of an African American father and a white mother, he grew up in New York City and credits his mixed racial heritage for putting him in a "unique position to travel between different worlds". He chose the pseudonym "Jay Smooth" as a teenager when he started his radio program.

In 2008 he was chosen as one of Salon.com's "sexiest men living."