For Broderick Thompson-Smith, Home Means Showing Up
Broderick Thompson-Smith calls his front porch an oasis. He added curtains and a television, and he likes being able to sit outside and talk with the neighbors who look out for one another. “We hold each other down,” he says. That sense of community is part of what makes his home on Atlanta’s historic Westside special to him.
Broderick’s road here began in rural Arkansas, where he was raised by his grandmother, aunt and uncle. “I knew in life I could do two things really well, and that’s play football and music,” he says. He went on to play football in college. Music started as something he kept to himself: making up songs as a child, then writing lyrics and figuring out how to build beats. Encouragement from a cousin helped him take that talent seriously.
He came to Atlanta to pursue music and eventually connected with the group D4L. At the time, he was also his son’s primary caregiver. On the morning the group’s hit “Laffy Taffy” took shape, Broderick had dropped his son off at school before heading to the studio. The song became a career milestone, but his work with young people would give music another purpose in his life.
Broderick remembers seeing a 14-year-old girl in an Atlanta neighborhood who needed help and feeling troubled that the people around her seemed to look away. He made a promise to God that he would return and do something positive for young people. “Kids are our business,” he says.
That promise helped lead to Music Without Limits, the program he founded to give young people room to make music and films. He describes the joy of watching a child hear their voice on a recording for the first time. For teenagers, writing a song can help them put a difficult experience into words. Broderick wants the studio to be a place where young people feel heard, create freely and have fun.
He also wanted a lasting home for his own family. Broderick joined Westside Future Fund’s Home on the Westside program in 2019 as a renter at Villas at the Dome. With classes, guidance and steady work on his credit, he became a homeowner in 2023. His children watched him go through that process, too. He says as they saw him change, it encouraged them to do the same.
Broderick’s care for the neighborhood extends well beyond his own porch. When an older resident on Brawley Drive asked for help with a neglected property beside her home, he brought the issue to a neighborhood meeting. Working with others and city contacts, he helped get the property cleared. What matters to him is that his neighbor can enjoy her home in peace.
“We are a village,” Broderick says. For him, homeownership means having a place to stay rooted on the historic Westside and a chance to keep showing up for the people who make it home.
