Birth name Vivian Smallwood Name Rappin' Granny Occupation(s) MusicianActress | Genres Hip hop music Years active 1989–present | |
Born June 18, 1933 (age 91) ( 1933-06-18 ) Movies and TV shows Similar People Paris Barclay, Christine Vachon, Lorene Scafaria, Shuki Levy, Joel Coen | ||
Rappin Granny
Vivian Lee Smallwood (June 18, 1933 - July 22nd, 2017), known by her stage name Rappin' Granny, was an American grandmother who performed hip-hop music. She lived in Castaic, California, near Los Angeles.
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Smallwood was a contestant on the NBC television series America's Got Talent during the 2006 season.
AGT Rappin Granny
Rapping
Smallwood was employed as a postal worker and began rapping in the mid-1980s. She took first place in a rap contest at a South-Central Los Angeles roller rink with an anti-drug themed rap. By 1988 she had formed a group with her son called Rappin' Granny and DJ Len. She won a Granny of the Year contest in Pasadena in 1988, performing a rap version of the song "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena". In 1989, she released a little-known, self-titled music video called "Rock-n-Soul". Smallwood was signed to Tandem Records in 1992. She released the single "You Didn't Use Your Blinker Fool" as a response to the DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince song "You Saw My Blinker". A brand of soda, Rappin Granny's Slammin Strawberry Hip Hop Pop, was named for her in 1995.
Acting
Smallwood has been a working Hollywood actress since the mid-1990s. She has appeared in numerous television shows with small parts and a few feature films. Some of her credits are, Everybody Hates Chris, Malcolm in the Middle, The Shield, and The Ladykillers. In Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996) she is credited as Vivian 'Rappin Granny' Smallwood. She also played "Nano" in Big Bad Beetleborgs, a show on the former Fox Kids network. In 2012, she appeared on the How I Met Your Mother episode "The Magician's Code: Part 1".
Smallwood was featured in the Apollo Theater's Apollo Circus of Soul in 2007.
America's Got Talent
Smallwood was a contestant on the NBC television series America's Got Talent and qualified on the August 16, 2006 season finale for the one-million-dollar grand prize. In her audition, Rappin' Granny gave a performance that was very popular among the crowd and the judges, all of whom (Brandy, David Hasselhoff, and Piers Morgan) advanced her to the next round by way of a unanimous vote. Smallwood then returned for the semifinal episode that aired July 26, 2006. After another crowd-pleasing song, the judges again put her through to the next round, by another unanimous vote. For the final round, Smallwood rode in on a motorcycle. However, the final round was not kind to Smallwood; not only did she not win the million-dollar prize, she finished in the bottom half of the public vote that determined the winner, as announced by host Regis Philbin.
Personal life
Smallwood has 15 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.