Of the fifty or so blue-collar jobs that Che Smith worked until 2004, the worst was his last. "I was a janitor," he says. "One day somebody crapped all over the bathroom. I took one look at this doo-doo on the walls, walked out and said, 'I'm gonna make it.'" From there, the Chicago native, 28, who had been rapping as Rhymefest since age fifteen, set out to score a record deal, taking inspiration from the success of his buddy, producer-rapper Kanye West. Smith's forthcoming debut, Blue Collar, shows off his brashly nontraditional rhymes: A politically astute Muslim who once defeated Eminem in a Chicago rap battle, Smith raps with brawny, quick-tongued command about shopping at Home Depot, P. Diddy's "Vote or Die" efforts and feeling guilty about trying to make it with somebody's baby mama, all over soul-drenched funk that reflects his old-school roots.

Growing up on Chicago's South Side, Smith managed to avoid the rampant gangs in his neighborhood while enduring a hardscrabble upbringing. He was mostly raised by his mother, whom he eventually persuaded to get a nursing degree after years of shaky behavior. "My mother smoked crack for a while," Smith says. "One day in the eighth grade, a girl comes up to me and says, 'My brother sold your mama a rock.'"

As a child, Smith found refuge in rhyming. "In fifth grade, we were supposed to do a composition," he says. "And I came in with a rap about doing your homework. The classroom went crazy!" Taking cues from Big Daddy Kane, Geto Boys and Biz Markie, Smith spent hours honing his rhymes in his bedroom. He won his first big battle at fifteen and later "won real easy" against Eminem in the finals of the 1997 Scribble Jam in Chicago. When Smith was eighteen, he met West: "I went around town talking crap about him, and one day he said, 'Fest, let's go out.' We were riding around with a friend of his, and we hit it off. When he dropped me off, he said, 'We was gonna beat you and dump you somewhere. But you're a cool dude.'"

Their friendship proved pivotal when West was writing his debut, The College Dropout. Smith played a demo of "Jesus Walks," which pays homage to the Christian savior but, Smith says, jibes with his Muslim beliefs. Smith worked with West on the song for The College Dropout, and "Jesus Walks" earned West and Smith Grammys for Best Rap Song in 2004. Now, Smith has loftier goals: "People are working these shit jobs. My mission is to do for the people what The Cosby Show did for the people. It doesn't have to be all negative."