From hip hop pioneer to underrated rapper: Will Smith’s effort to revive his forgotten music career

Willard Carroll Smith II, 56, is one of the most famous actors of the 21st century. According to Forbes magazine, he is the biggest movie star of the post-9/11 era. But what many people don’t know is that he was also one of the first hip-hop stars, playing a pivotal role in popularizing this music genre even before rising to fame as the lead of the TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Smith started rapping at the age of 12, and soon developed a distinctive style that veered away from the streetwise persona often associated with hip-hop, and avoided using profanity. As he confessed in 2020 on Late Night with Seth Meyers, his grandmother was the reason behind this decision. “I had my rap book, and I was writing my stuff and I had all my little curse words in my rap book. And my grandmother found my rap book.”

“And she just turned — she never said nothing,” he continued. “Turned to the back page and she said, ‘Dear Willard, truly intelligent people do not have to use words like this to express themselves. Please show the world that you’re as smart as we think you are. Love, Gigi.’ I read that, and I was like, ‘Fuck.’”

In 1985, Smith met Jeffrey Townes, better known as DJ Jazzy Jeff. Townes was playing at a house party, and young Will decided to join in and jam with him. The chemistry between them was instant. A year later, a small Philadelphia label, Word Up Records, released the duo’s first single under the name DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble showcased Smith’s lyrical style: narrative, humorous, and witty, always maintaining a light-hearted tone in his rhymes while using language suitable for all audiences, free of profanity.

At this point, a pivotal figure entered their story: renowned British DJ Paul Oakenfold. At the time, he was heavily involved in hip hop, living in New York and working as a scout for the English record label Champion Records, through which Oakenfold signed the two to a distribution deal for the British Isles. Their first single, in fact, gained success in the United Kingdom before it did in the United States, thanks in part to its hilarious music video, which began to air more frequently on MTV, leading to their growing popularity.

Now signed to a larger label, Jive, their LP Rock The House was released in 1987. In 1988, they followed up with He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper, the first-ever double album in hip hop history and one of the genre’s first best-sellers, with two and a half million copies sold at the time. This wasn’t their only historic achievement: in 1989, they won the first Grammy Award for a hip hop song and the first MTV Music Award for a music video in the genre, both for Parents Just Don’t Understand.

At that time, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince were emerging alongside pioneers like Run DMC, Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys, and LL Cool J, but their music videos were shown more frequently, and promoters were more eager to book them due to their non-offensive image. However, that doesn’t mean they shied away from controversy. In fact, they decided not to attend the Grammy Awards in protest of the organizers’ decision to exclude the presentation of the new award for hip hop from the televised broadcast.

Making rap mainstream and criticism for being ‘soft’

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince were the first hip hop duo to make the leap into mainstream culture and, to a large extent, laid the foundation for the genre’s mainstream acceptance.

“They brought a lot of freshness and versatility to the scene at the time. The Fresh Prince was a cheeky and fun MC, but Jazzy Jeff is one of the most important DJs to have come out of hip hop culture. The tricks he brought, his consistency and skill… any DJ who’s a DJ will tell you that,” says Francisco Eson Ntue, better known as Dobleache, a pioneer of rap in Spain and director of Hip Hop Life magazine.

“They were a very good combo that influenced many of us,” he adds. “In a scene dominated by hardcore rap and aggressive posturing, they brought that more colorful, less hard-faced vibe, which was equally necessary. Their contribution was very beneficial and inspiring. Then came the series (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), and that’s when they popularized the culture even further, taking it to another level, influencing a generation that didn’t listen to rap music, and transcending hip hop. They’re known more for the series than for their albums, that’s a fact, but those albums they made together are gold.”

However, their contribution to hip hop culture was also met with skepticism from more hardcore circles, who questioned their street credibility.

“DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince were often ridiculed as bubblegum kiddie rap — they weren’t aggressive, outraged, gritty, or urban enough to fit the prevailing hip-hop fashion of the time,” wrote critic Steve Huey on the website AllMusic. “However, in hindsight, it’s clear that the duo’s appeal was a natural result of simply being themselves, not from pandering to middle-class youth or posing as something they weren’t. That’s why the best of their work still sounds lively, full of youthful energy and breezy wit, and ranks as some of the most infectious pop-rap of its time.”

As Dobleache predicted, it was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that changed everything for Will Smith. In reality, the circumstances that led to the popular television series’ launch were far from fortuitous. In 1989, the duo’s third album, And In This Corner..., received less recognition than expected, and their impact on the scene began to fade after the debut of De La Soul, the group that would go on to become the standard-bearer of positive rap.

At the same time, Smith faced trouble with the tax authorities, and the need to pay off a $3 million debt was what ultimately led him to accept NBC’s offer to star in a television series, despite having no prior acting experience beyond his acclaimed music videos.

During its run, between 1990 and 1996, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air became the great Trojan horse that helped introduce hip hop into mainstream American culture, not just among African Americans, but across a wider audience of American youth.

Smith, who was also the first of many rap stars to make the leap into acting, quickly recognized his potential to become a famous and successful actor. At the same time, he continued to pursue his musical ambitions. In 1991, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince released Homebase, which featured one of their biggest hits, Summertime. Then, in 1993, they dropped Code Red, which included another major hit, Boom! Shake The Room, which reached number one in both the U.K. and Ireland.

From The Fresh Prince’s end to Will Smith’s rise

In the mid-1990s, Smith decided to focus on his film career. But in 1997, he returned to music, now performing under his own name, which was closely tied to his growing fame as an actor. Men in Black, the title track from the blockbuster film he starred in that year, became the biggest hit of his music career. His second album, Willennium, also gained popularity with the title track for the film Wild Wild West. His third album, Born to Reign (2002), featured the theme song for Men in Black II as its lead single. His 2005 album Lost and Found remains the last album released under the name Will Smith, and it outperformed his earlier works as “The Fresh Prince.”

“His solo albums were much more commercial and less original, though they still have some great tracks and I’d dance to them if they came on in a bar,” says Dobleache. “I think the fact that he made the leap to the big screen and the huge success he had there definitely shaped him as a musician. The mere fact that he went from being called Fresh Prince to Will Smith speaks volumes. He lost much of the quality and relevance of his first albums. They sound fantastic, he has amazing collaborators and they have production managers, beatmakers, etc., but they are purely commercial albums, closely tied to his success and status as an actor and very much geared toward show business.”

This perception of Smith’s music, initially embraced by the hip hop industry and later by the general public, was humorously reflected in a famous gag from Family Guy, which parodied the artist’s “nice clean raps.” In the sketch, the Will Smith cartoon character raps in the studio: “I respect women when I’m on a date / I’ll take ‘em to the park or maybe the museum / And I only try to kiss ‘em if they’re ready.” And: “Help out your mom and dad by gettin’ a job / So you can help pay for school supplies.”

“My most personal album”

Even though Will Smith hasn’t recorded an album in 20 years, that doesn’t mean he’s completely retired from music. At least not in the last decade. In 2017, he teamed up with Jazzy Jeff to release the track Get Lit, and in 2018, he performed at the closing ceremony of the World Cup in Russia, singing the official theme song, Live It Up, alongside Nicky Jam and Kosovar-Albanian singer Era Istrefi. That same year, he also collaborated with Marc Anthony and Bad Bunny on Está Rico and recorded three songs for the soundtrack of Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin, in which he also starred.

Following the controversial incident at the 2022 Oscars, where he slapped Chris Rock (which somewhat overshadowed his win for King Richard), it seems that his return to music may be part of his effort to restore his image. That’s what’s been inferred from comments he has made about his upcoming album, Based On A True Story, due out on March 28. He has said it is “my most personal album” and that its central theme revolves around finding resilience during difficult times.

The first preview track, You Can Make It, was shared on Instagram with this message: “Through some of my darkest moments, music has always been there for me — to lift me and help me grow. It’s my humble wish that it can do the same for you and bring you all the joy and light you deserve.”

Over the past year, he has released additional songs, including Work Of Art — which features his son, Jaden — TANTRUM, and Beautiful Scars. He also made a public appearance at the Grammy Awards in February, his first time attending such an event since the Oscars incident.

A few days later, he was at the center of a tabloid gossip column, accompanied by a surprising figure: Spanish singer India Martínez. The two met last summer in Marbella when Smith attended the Starlite gala. After she performed a flamenco-style ranchera song for him, he invited her to record a single together in Miami. The song, titled First Love, will be featured on his album, and the pair performed it live at the Lo Nuestro Awards gala on February 20, a fiery performance that sparked both speculation and criticism. According to The Daily Mail, Smith was described as “a sad ‘dad on the karaoke with a drunk local woman.‘”

“Honestly, I don’t expect much from this new album,” says Dobleache. “I’ve heard a few singles and collaborations with other artists over the years, and it will probably follow a purely commercial path more oriented toward the general public. I no longer expect him to go down in history with his new songs like his work with Jazzy Jeff. He’s been on another stage for a while, but, like the title of his film, he’s already a legend.”

What is new is that, for the first time, Smith will embark on a world tour to promote the album.

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