Born Tero Smith, on June 26, 1977, in Columbus, Ohio, United States, Camu Tao made his name as a hip hop producer, rapper, and singer. Smith died on May 25, 2008, after a two-year battle with lung cancer. At the time of his death, he was producing a song for Cage's I Never Knew You EP and working on his first solo for Definitive Jux. On July 9, 2009, El-P announced via Twitter that the album, King of Hearts, was finished, and would be released on October 20, 2009. King of Hearts was released on August 17, 2010 by Definitive Jux in collaboration with Fat Possum Records along with a free download EP from Central Services. About the album, El-P said:
We all expected to get Camu in the studio and go as far as he wanted to go with the record. The songs are bare, but then again a lot of them are just what he wanted. A lot of them wouldn’t have changed much. Knowing Camu, he had a lot of talented musician friends he would have liked to have collaborated and have involved. I do think the album would have been different had he lived to complete it.
Aesop Rock, also on Definitive Jux, stated in a 2008 interview with The A.V. Club that his next album may contain "a couple of songs about my friend Camu ". In his song, "Racing Stripes," Aesop Rock reflects on Camu Tao near the end of his life. Specifically, Aesop Rock notes Camu Tao's unusual haircut, and the unusual new habits Camu Tao had developed. Camu Tao is also the main subject in Aesop Rock's song "Get Out of the Car" in his 2016 album The Impossible Kid, reflecting on how the death of his friend drove him to an 8 year long state of emotional paralysis and an increasing trend of self-imposed social isolation. In 2017 when the video for this song was released he remarked: "This May 25th marks 9 years since the death of my friend Camu Tao, an event that serves as an emotional and narrative anchor in both this song and my life. I wanted to reflect on things that had changed since, and try to connect some events I hadn't realized were potentially related". El-P, founder of the defunct Definitive Jux label, dedicated his album Cancer 4 Cure to his memory. Years later, he indirectly speaks about him in his verse in the track "Thursday in the Danger Room" in Run the Jewels 3 by Run the Jewels. El-P has confirmed that the verse was about his experience with Camu while he battled cancer in a response to a tweet from a fan on his official Twitter account.. It is evident by the lyrics that this experience was extremely emotionally taxing for him.
