Smitty’s first big break came while stalking Dr. Dre on the set of the 2001 movie The Wash.

”I waited all day and all night for him,” Smitty says. “Finally, he came over and I just started spitting for him, the kind of stuff I figured he wanted to hear. Two weeks later, I was writing for him for the Truth Hurts album.”

After he penned Hollywood for the soundtrack for The Wash, Smitty says he and Dre talked about a recording contract but nothing solid ever came from it.

A few months later, another stalking — this time Diddy doing an appearance on Jay Leno — landed Smitty another writing job.

”I told him I don’t want to sign, I just want to write for Bad Boy [Records],” Smitty says. “He gave me a song to work on and I went home and wrote six or seven verses. I don’t even remember if they were hot, but the next thing I know I’m staying in Puffy’s penthouse on Broadway, writing for Bad Boy.”

For Puff, Smitty worked on hit singles Shake Ya Tailfeather (which Diddy performed with Nelly and Murphy Lee) and B2K’s Bump, Bump, Bump and co-wrote three songs on the Bad Boys II soundtrack, which sold more than 300,000 copies its first week and remained No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts for four weeks.

Then he met Breyon Prescott, a businessman-producer-impresario with extensive industry connections. Smitty’s manager, Calvin Valrie, introduced him to Prescott, who set off a bidding war among Arista, Capitol Records, Def Jam, Elektra, Jive and J Records. In the end, Prescott says they chose J Records because of its legendary founder Clive Davis.

”Clive gave us an incredible amount of leeway to make the album we wanted,” Prescott says. “He also gave us a lot of support. The producers on this album are the best in the business . . . Hype Williams shot the first video. That never happens unless maybe you throw a million dollars at him.”

Smitty’s J Records debut album, ‘Life of a Troubled Child’, will hit stores on January 24th.