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Global Grind sat down with the knee-slapping-funny man JB Smoove and his beautiful wife Shahidah Omar to chat about about his career.

JB Smoove has made us choke on laughs with his stints on Curb Your Enthusiasm alongside Larry David and he shares with GG more intimate details about his career and the people that influence him. Many legends from Bill Cosby to Eddie Murphy have been inspirational to JB but he never failed put in the gritty hard work to rise to where he is.

His wife, Shahidah Omar also opens up about her singing career and explains how much of an encouraging force JB is in her life.

The infectious couple give off a playful but loving aura and the pop quiz section at the end clearly reveals that JB and Shahidah are well matched individuals who are both bursting with incredible personalities.

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It is great to sit with you both. Want to talk to Shahidah first, as JB you get enough attention. Let’s talk about your first album, Freedom? How did you pick what you were going to speak about?

Shahidah: Actually I’ve been writing the same way for a long time so I pretty much write about stuff that is happening in the world. So it’s not just personally about me. Like it could be about me, but it’s just about what’s happening in the world, in general. I did some hip-hop, I did some R&B stuff but I was never completely happy there. I like rock honestly, so I infused rock and opera which I’ve been trained in with that into this album, so it’s like a world rock opera album. So it’s more so about the direction I was going to take with what I was talking about.

A man’s dream is to marry a woman who can sing. How does that complicate things?

JB: Her voice is like an instrument. I love it when she speaks, I love it when she sings, I love every bit of her voice, man. I love her process, I mean just her process alone is big. She puts 200% in everything she does and I love her passion and I love her voice, like what she has to say. Her voice to put out what she believes in, to put out motivation, to put out freedom, inspiration. Not only is she an amazing singer, shes an amazing person. She could mess around and be the first female president.

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How do you all work together?

Shahidah: It’s a great support system because we do totally different things. So at his shows, I watch his whole thing and I take a note pad and if I hear something new I’ll write it down because I have to remember this, this is crazy. So I support him that way. And when I’m recording at the studio at home I bring him in with me and let him listen to what I’m working on and he helps me through that.

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Who influences you?

Shahidah: In general, t