Lil Duval

Standup comedian, actor, and part-time music performer Lil Duval contributed to countless mixtapes and albums beginning in the early 2000s, later taking the lead on several singles highlighted by the 2018 track “Smile (Living My Best Life)” that included Snoop Dogg.

Roland Powell, known professionally as Lil Duval, grew up in Jacksonville inside Florida’s Duval County. His comedy career launched on Atlanta stages, and a 2001 contest in Oakland earned him early backing from Cedric the Entertainer. Beyond live performances and an expanding list of film parts—Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming, Scary Movie 5, and Meet the Blacks among them—Duval supplied interludes to rap projects by Trae tha Truth, Three 6 Mafia, Devin the Dude, and T.I. He also logged frequent video appearances in clips from those same artists plus Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, Wale, and E-40.

From 2014 onward, Duval began releasing his own bluntly irreverent and satirical singles; “What Dat Mouf Do” featuring Trae, “Drop It Off,” and “I Ain’t Stressing” appeared by 2017. The Midnight Star-sampling follow-up “Smile (Living My Best Life)” arrived the next year alongside Snoop and Ball Greezy.