Smoov-E

Smoov E aka Eli was born Eli Raphael Meltzer in Summertown, Tennessee on September 26th 1979 to Alan and Lee Meltzer. The youngest of 4 siblings, Eli, his three sisters, mom, and dad moved to Sebastopol when he was 4 years old. It was there that he grew up on the sounds of his parents' favorite records by artists such as The Talking Heads, The Police, Whitney Houston and The Pretenders. Along with his new found rap favorites such as Bay Area legends Too Short and Spice 1, Eli's passion for music began to catch fire.

By the time he attended Analy High School, Eli started harassing his parents incessantly for a drum machine until his mother finally broke down and bought him one with the stipulation that he not tell his father. From then on E knew he wanted to do dedicate his life to music and spent hours locked in his room mastering the timing and rhythms of his new found calling. He has since described drum machines as his first instrument and clocked more time on them than any other musical tool. His collection of both vintage and modern drum sequencers continues to grow and has been evident in all of his work.

As of 2010 Eli has signed with I-Khan Distrubution headed by his friend and mentor Andre Nickatina. In order to represent yet another new direction in his illustrious career he has dropped the moniker "Smoov E" and is now known simply as "Eli". He's currently putting the rapping aside and focusing his efforts on singing and songwriting. All the elements of Smoov E that define his persona and style are still there, just in a different package. With songs like "Cocaine Girls" and "Dick Like Mine", it's plain to see the old Smoov E of dirty raps isn't gone…he's just become, as Nickatina put it, "The New Face Of Rock & Roll"