It’s not uncommon to see students showing school spirit by wearing an STJ t-shirt, jacket, hat or even shorts. Students even run around campus exclaiming a victory for the basketball team so loud that all of Fresh Meadows can hear them. Through the good and the bad seasons, St. John’s fans have always shown pride in their athletics program. One fan, however, puts his musical abilities to use in supporting the St. John’s team.

Will Smooth, a St. John’s alumni and an independent musician, created the new theme for St. John’s basketball, “White and Red.” His music can be heard on MySpace and his YouTube channel with over 3,000 subscribers and close to 500,000 views on his 40 videos.

One day while on his Twitter account, he had seen a tweet from Timmy Dimas of WSJU Radio, linking to a Rutgers remix of “Black and Yellow” entitled “Black and Scarlet.” Timmy wished that somebody could do this for the St. John’s team. Smooth responded to the tweet and the next day, “White and Red” was born.

“That was Thanksgiving. I recorded the song the next day and after that, WSJU helped film the video and it all snowballed from there,” said Smooth.

The song was first heard over the airwaves on WSJU Radio. The video on YouTube reached over 15,000 views in two months and is currently available for free to download. Most importantly, the song is known as the St. John’s Basketball team’s anthem and is played during the games at Madison Square Garden and Carnesecca Arena.  

The fans seem to like the song and have shown Smooth their appreciation for it.

“Since the video came out, my campus popularity has gone up a lot,” said Will.

Besides just being a spectator at games, Smooth has been a long time fan of the St. John’s basketball game. This year especially he has gotten to know some of the players well, even off the court.

“Me and Malik Boothe are really close and I’m also good friends with Justin Burrell because we both come from the Bronx,” said Smooth. “This season we’re a much more disciplined team. It’s a good team and it gives us something to look forward to.”  

Smooth attributes most of this to Coach Lavin both in the interview and in his song with his one line of lyrics, “We got our swag back shout out to Coach Lavin.”

As a student, Smooth majored in business marketing.

“At first I lived on campus, but that got a little too expensive. Since I lived in the Bronx, I figured I might as well just take the commute,” said Smooth.

While studying at St. John’s he worked at Campus Recreation for three and a half years.

“It was good because I got to meet a lot of people and had a lot of fun,” said Smooth.

Currently, Smooth’s music career is at the focus of his life which makes it more complicated with a job and his new music career.

“I’m always doing work, writing music, and making videos. Between all that I barely sleep at all,” said Smooth.

All of his hard work has finally paid off. After his “White and Red” video was released, he announced two major deals that he was signing on YouTube.     

His “Whas Gooh” catchphrase will be printed and sold on t-shirts and he also has a sponsorship with a new drink called Reve Vodka. However, Smooth keeps his humor even when discussing his new deals.

“[The shirts] are being sponsored by Skinny Guy Inc. That’s not to say that only skinny guys can wear it,” said Will with a smile. “They come in all sizes.”

Since his music is the major part of his life, Smooth stays in contact with his fans through many of his social networking sites including FaceBook and Twitter.

“This was something that started as a hobby and just turned into something so much bigger,” said Smooth.     

Although his financial manager was present with him at the interview, Smooth remains an unsigned artist. He gave a few hints away that he may be looking at deals from a few companies.