Smart Songs


Smart Songs is an educational music group founded in 2008 by Shoeless Jeff and Scott Free. According to the group’s website , the mission of Smart Songs is to “provide kids and teachers with fun and educational hip hop that makes learning fun.” Media sources and have described the group as the current version of Schoolhouse Rock. Album DVDs and are currently distributed through Social Studies School Service.

Origins

Shoeless Jeff and Scott Free met each other while playing baseball for the Babe Ruth League in Providence, Rhode Island at age 13, while Jeff was playing shortstop and Scott was on second base. In high school, Jeff began writing educational raps for extra credit in his classes while he and Scott worked on non-educational hip hop songs. In college together at Providence College, Jeff and Scott helped form a live hip hop band called Capitol Hill that toured the East Coast. While on tour, the group visited an inner-city school in Dorchester, MA and realized their style of music fit well with students and decided to launch Smart Songs.

Albums

In 2011, Smart Songs released a remixed and remastered version of its album ', which explains several topics in United States Social Studies and History. The tracks include: , , , , , , , , , , and .
Smart Songs released its second album ' in 2013, which explains the economy and money management. The tracks include: , , , , , , and .

Distribution

Album DVDs and are currently distributed through Social Studies School Service. The audio tracks are available on and . Smart Songs began releasing YouTube videos to correspond with its songs in 2008, and the channel has approximately 5 million views and 20,000 subscribers. In 2008, Smart Songs’ music was distributed through Highlights for Children, which is the largest children's magazine in the world with over 2 million subscribers. In 2010, began distributing Smart Songs’ new version of Trip to DC through its website and catalog.

Publicity

In January 2011, Smart Songs was interviewed by for a university podcast. This podcast also appeared on .
In October 2011, Smart Songs appeared on . Other interviews include:
March 2012 -
January 2012 –
March 2009 –
October 2008 – The Providence Journal
October 2008 –