Who Is D Smoke Playing in ‘Mayor of Kingstown’?
D Smoke, aka Daniel Anthony Farris, is an American rapper from Inglewood, California. He’s an exceptionally popular performer, but that didn’t stop D Smoke from pursuing an acting career alongside his rapper/songwriter success. His biggest role so far came in the second season of Paramount+’s show, Mayor of Kingstown. So, who is D Smoke playing in the series?
D Smoke portrays Raphael in Mayor of Kingstown. He is an inmate and one of the close friends of the Crips gang leader, Bunny. The character first appeared in Season 2 Episode 3 of the show and has since been locked up with Bunny at Anchor Bay prison as one of his closest allies.
Initially, fans believed it’d just be a cameo role for D Smoke, who had already appeared in several small roles in other shows in the past. However, by the time of writing this article – which is right between Episodes 7 and 8 of the show’s second season – D Smoke had already appeared in five episodes so far and will likely appear in more. So, here’s a breakdown of his character.
Who is D Smoke playing in ‘Mayor of Kingstown’?
The second season of Mayor of Kingstown is a slow-burning yet action-packed thriller, just like the first season was. While most of the cast from the first season returned – including Jeremy Renner as Mike McClusky and Tobi Bamtefa as Bunny – we were also introduced to numerous outstanding new characters.
One of those characters is Raphael, portrayed by none other than the famous American rapper D Smoke. So, who is Raphael, and what part does he have to play in the series?
Raphael first appeared in Episode 3 of the second season of Mayor of Kingstown. He is an inmate and a member of the Crips, a gang led by Deverin Bunny Washington. As I’ve mentioned earlier, fans thought that Raphael would only appear as a cameo role for D Smoke, but as it turns out, he’s a recurring character throughout the season.
Raphael became one of Bunny’s closest allies while incarcerated and waiting for Mike to get him released from jail, as they agreed upon in the show’s previous season. They were both moved from Tent City to an undisclosed location, which we later discovered was the Anchor Bay prison.
As Mike McClusky discovered that Bunny was moved there, so did Raphael realize that all four gang leaders were moved to the same location, which he told Bunny in episode five of Season 2 called Kill Box.
Later, Raphael and Big Hush were attacked by a guy with a knife while being handcuffed to a table, and they thought Gunner, the leader of the Aryans gang, orchestrated it. Bunny and Raphael were later working in Anchor Bay’s plate factory when they were approached by Gunner, who explained he wasn’t behind the attacks.
Gunner instructed his men to deal with the guy who attacked Raphael and Big Hush, and soon after that, Bunny and Raphael heard screams in the factory as the guy’s hands got sawn off by a piece of heavy machinery in the factory.
The last we’ve seen of Raphael so far was in Episode 7 when Mike arranged for Bunny and him to be moved to a new cell in prison, equipped with food, a kitchen, a nice sofa, and other amenities that other inmates could only dream of. Raphael and Bunny prepared themselves a nice meal before seeing drones coming in through the window of their ‘cell.’
We’ll likely see more of Raphael in the following episodes, considering that he and Bunny are in the same prison and cell. Bunny is sort of the center-stage character of this entire season of action, apart from Mike McClusky, of course.
Is Raphael an important character?
I wouldn’t say that Raphael is an incredibly important character in Mayor of Kingstown. Still, he does play a vital supporting role as Bunny’s right-hand man while incarcerated in Anchor Bay. I love the character, though, and believe that D Smoke is doing a decent acting job.
I hope Mike manages to get Bunny and Raphael out of jail, but I don’t believe it’ll happen. My best guess is that the character of Raphael will serve a purpose in prison before either getting killed off in the ever-growing tension inside of Anchor Bay or after they get out and Kingstown becomes a gang warzone again.
D Smoke’s brief biography and acting career
For those who aren’t really into rap music, you probably don’t know who D Smoke is and why fans are raving about Raphael online. So, here’s a quick biography and a rundown of his acting career so far.
Daniel Farris, aka D Smoke, was born and raised in Inglewood, California, to a family with a deep musical background. He has also expressed interest in music since he was a kid. His mother gave him vocal lessons, but at age six, D Smoke started playing the piano.
Over the years, he profiled himself as a rap artist and songwriter, with numerous major hits over the years, including Never, for which he earned the ASCAP Award for Song of the Year. He also already has three Grammy nominations; Best New Artist and Best Rap Album in 2021, and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical as a producer in 2023.
As for his acting career, he actually appeared in small roles perpetually around 20 years ago as a teenager in shows such as The District, Judging Amy, Boston Public, and CSI.
Lately, he appeared in 2022’s Bel-Air as himself, D Smoke, while his rise to fame came from Netflix’s reality rap competition called Rhythm + Flow, which he won. Mayor of Kingstown is by far the most prominent role in his career.
