Dodd, Menendez AKA SuperSmash Becoming Rap Sensation
By Julie Perine on August 31, 2014
A year ago, rappers Logan Dodd and Ricky Menendez AKA SuperSmash were in New York City, backstage of "The X Factor" – ready to make their final audition performance. The Bridgeport High School grads were pumped for that opportunity, which came after making it through five rounds of preliminary auditions for the reality TV music competition created by Simon Cowell.
“We were literally backstage, ready to go on when they cut the show off early and we never got to perform,” Dodd said.
It was tough, to say the least; but then, so is the music business, the guys said. So they kept on pursuing their big break.
They may just have gotten it.
Recently, Dodd and Menendez traveled to Orlando, Fla. to audition in the ARTS Talent Showcase where the industry’s biggest agents, scouts and record labels were well represented.
“We got several callbacks – the most important ones being from Scott Dimig at Sony Music/Epic Records, Tashia Stafford at Icon Studios in Atlanta and Nate Butler with SyCo Entertainment – Simon Cowell’s company,” Dodd said.
Dimig told the guys that their act was the real deal, free of gimmicks and heavy in believability. Butler, who scouts for “America’s Got Talent,” called the performance hilarious and electric.
“So basically we got three really good opportunities,” Dodd said. “Next week, we go to Icon Studios in Atlanta to record.”
The pipe dream is that the record gets picked up by the Sony/Epic label, but if that doesn’t happen, there’s a great consolation prize – an audition for “America’s Got Talent.”
“We have the option to be presented to the executive producers for ‘Americas Got Talent’ next season,” Dodd said.
His present day job is as a road flagger, but his passion – as it has been for about seven years – is to be a performing artist. Several years ago, he modeled and that led to acting. It took a while to find out that music – and in Dodd’s case, rap - was the right avenue.
“When you’re acting, you’re portraying someone else, which is fine. But music is more about how I feel – right now, about certain situations or memories,” he said.
Until recently, Dodd performed solo. Pairing up with another rapper is something he always considered very carefully.
“When I make music, I’m putting out a product – and I want it to be the best it can be,” he said.
But then along came his cousin and roommate Menendez, who surprisingly had some legitimate talent.
“He said he wanted to try rapping and he was really good,” Dodd said.
Menendez was not only good, he had a valid interest in pursuing it as a career. SuperSmash was born and for the past several months, the pair of BHS alums - Dodd of the class of 2005 and Menendez of 2004 - have been giving it their best shot.
In addition to “The X Factor” venture, Dodd and Menendez were cast as extras in the upcoming motion picture, “Sundowning,” starring Kathryn Hahn, Ed Oxenboul and Peter McRobbie.
“It was shot in Ft. Lauderdale and the writer/director was M. Night Shyamalan,” Menendez said. “It should be in theaters before Christmas.”
It was through WVAQ radio that the guys found out about the ARTS Talent Showcase.
The idea that they could soon be under the same record label as Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson is surreal, to say the least.
For now, that’s a waiting game. In the meantime, they are making quite a splash in the video circuit with “Drake All Me Remix” and the brand new “Pete Rose (Underwater Music Video).”
Menendez said he agrees with his cousin that rap is the highest level of self-expression.
“Knowing that others have just enjoyed something that we created is the highest form of compliment,” he said. “The greatest feeling in the world is to see others enjoying something you have put your whole heart into. That feeling of electricity is one I will chase forever!”
Dodd and Menendez said another cousin, Jeremy Gum, has also been instrumental in the rap music venture.
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