Smokey Robinson at Mountain Winery

“When people think of gasms, they think of orgasms first and foremost … I tell everybody: Whatever your gasm is, that’s exactly what I’m talking about.’” — Smokey Robinson on the album's title and its conceptual focus. Smokey worked on the music for this album for six years before the April 2023 release of Gasms. The album was preceded by the lead single "If We Don't Have Each Other," which was followed by the single "How You Make Me Feel." Whatever the critics and public think, Gasms is a significant departure from his previous album, Christmas Everyday, a 2017 Amazon.com exclusive of Christmas songs.

Smokey has received numerous awards as an entertainer, beginning with an individual star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1983, being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and receiving his first Grammy Award in 1988 for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. In 1989, he was inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. During the 1990s, Smokey Robinson didn't do much in the music recording industry. Smokey Robinson received the Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for his lifetime contributions to popular music in 2016, and he was inducted into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame in 2022.

Smokey Robinson led the Miracles from their inception as "the Five Chimes" in 1955 until 1972, when he announced his retirement from the group to focus on his role as Motown's vice president. Due to his contacts and links with the African American musical fraternity, he became instrumental in the phenomenal growth of the Motown Record Label, and used the label to promote, spread, and promote racial integration within the music industry. Robinson left Motown Records in 1990, following the company's sale to MCA Records in 1988.

Robinson, however, returned to the music industry as a solo artist in 1973, producing a staggering 24 albums over his career with a combined total of 58 singles. As well as being credited as a writer for bands such as, The Temptations, The Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye, The Contours, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, Diana Ross & the Supremes, The Jackson 5, The Four Tops, and The Supremes, among others.