WILL SMITH - BE SURE TO VOTE FOR THIS SITE! AND CHECK OUT THE "WIN PRIZE" SECTION - Athletic Organizations - http://maxpages.com/thebigshow2000/WILL

The
Artist-Formerly-Known-As-The-Fresh-Prince.
Mr. Smith. Big Will. Or just plain Big Willie.
None of these snazzy monikers can begin
to fully describe Will Smith. A natural in an
information crazed age - warm, whimsical,
telegenic, charismatic -- Smith has cut a
trail across an increasingly complex
electronic frontier: LP, CD, MTV, NBC,
CD-ROM, and DVD. He's a multimedia
phenomenon with a million-dollar smirk.

But through his various incarnations -
rapper, actor, box-office deity - Will Smith
has constantly challenged himself. So a
return to the world of music was almost
expected. Consider for a moment, however,
when Smith began rapping at the age
twelve, hip-hop was a small part of Black
counter-culture, but over the last seventeen
years hip- hop has become an international
commodity. Smith was troubled by the
escalating violence associated with hip-hop
and the tragic deaths of Tupac and Biggie.
Frankly he was unsure of his role. "That was
a large part of why I didn't make a record,"
Smith explains. "It was like I don't even
wanna rhyme. I made records in my crib. I
thought that if this is what the world is
going to, then I don't think there's any
place in there for me." On his very first solo
album, Big Willie Style, Smith boldly takes
a seat at the table.

Make room for the staccato delivery that
enlivened such old-school gems as
"Parents Just Don't Understand" and "Girls
of the World...." Big Willie Style is an apt
description of his steelo. Unlike his
contemporaries, Smith doesn't boast about
his European fashion rags or swilling Cristal.
Instead, he mocks our own fascination with
celebrity. Yet he does it Big Willie Style,
with gratitude, humor, and humility. "I wake
up everyday and life is just damn good", he
explains. "It's just good to be me. I wake
up everyday thanking God."

But query Smith on the Big Willie lifestyle,
and he has a different definition. "Being a
Big Willie is not about what kind of car you
drive, it's not really that. Being a Willie is in
your attitude. Being a Willie is based on
other things, so-called Willies use different
measuring tools than I use. For me, the
ultimate Willie tool, the Willie measuring
stick, the Willie litmus test is intellect. I
always appreciated Chuck D, Melle Mel,
Rakim, and KRS-One for their intellect.
There's thought in their rhymes, a lot of
times you see people, these so-called
Willies not coming up with anything."

From his very first steps, Smith's life has
been a Capra-esque screenplay. A native of
West Philadelphia, Will Smith II was born to
a working-class household, his father a
refrigeration engineer; his mother, a school
administrator. As a gradeschooler, Smith
began hearing faint rumblings from up
north, the Big Apple, more specifically, The
Bronx. Eager to duplicate these sounds, he
became a student of rhyme. "I bought my
first rap record when I was twelve, I guess
that was like 1980, when Sugarhill Records
and Enjoy Records were all there was,"
Smith recalls. "If it didn't have either one of
those labels, then there was no need to
buy it."

Behind the kick drum of an 808 and a
sample of TV golden-oldie "I Dream of
Jeannie," Smith and turntable wizard DJ
Jazzy Jeff spun a new brand of hip-hop,
devoid of bombastic politics or exclusionary
rhetoric - it was pure adolescent angst
("Girls of the World Ain't Nothing But
Trouble"). Smith followed with more playful
ribaldry on the pair's inaugural album,
1987's Rock The House, while DJ Jeff
introduced a hyper-kinetic form of
scratching called "transforming" that few
dared to challenge. Early on, parents
championed Smith and Jeff over "Parental
Advisory" branded hip-hop, inevitably
broadening their appeal, as well as their
fan base. Dubbed a soft-core rap act, the
preternaturally gifted Will and Jeff made
the industry as a whole sit up and take
notice. The group's success led the National
Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
(NARAS) to award DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh
Prince the first ever "Best Rap Performance"
Grammy in 1988 (for "Parents Just Don't
Understand"). The pair would go on to win
the "Best Rap Performance By A Duo Or
Group" Grammy in 1991 for "Summertime."
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince were
ultimately responsible for the multiplatinum
releases He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper
(1988), And In This Corner (1989),
Homebase (1990), and CodeRed (1993).

The infectious entertainment value of
Smith's stage persona did not go
unnoticed. Hollywood would soon be
knocking. After Will Smith met media
impresario Quincy Jones, a new television
sitcom was born: the enormously successful
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Loosely based
on the contours of Will's own personality -
wisecracking Philly kid makes good - The
Fresh Prince had a highly-rated six-season
run. Looking for new challenges, the
25-year-old Smith expanded the range of
his acting and entered the world of film.

He made his film debut in Where The Day
Takes You, a gritty tale of L.A.'s homeless
subculture. His next role was unabashed
proof that a major new talent had arrived.
In an adaptation of the Broadway hit, Six
Degrees of Separation, Will morphed into
Paul, a gay street hustler, who convinces a
family of blue-bloods that he's the son of
Sidney Poitier. Reviews of Smith's
performance were stellar. More screen
action lay ahead. For Bad Boys, a
testosterone-fueled jaunt through Miami's
backstreets, he buddied up with comedian
Martin Lawrence.

Bad Boys convinced audiences Smith could
throw a punch as well as he could a punch
line. While playing a swaggering detective
is one thing, saving the world is quite
another. Nothing could prepare Will-lovers
for Independence Day, the box-office
champion of 1996 and one of the highest
grossing films in Hollywood history. Who
can forget Captain Steven Hiller's hilarious
rejoinder "When we gonna kick ET's ass!"?
Ironically, ET creator Steven Spielberg was
producing another aliens-run-amuck
adventure and Smith was his first pick.
Released in summer '97, Men In Black
would again give Smith the
highest-grossing film of the year. The
best-selling Men In Black soundtrack put
Will Smith back on the map as a recording
artist: his raucous rappin' single of the title
track was an international global smash
while Will's rock video for the tune walked
off with the MTV Video Music Award for Best
Video From A Motion Picture. In the months
ahead, Will begins lensing Enemy of the
State, an action-thriller slated for a summer
'98 release.

While the big screen served as a dramatic
and lucrative playground, nothing compares
to music, his first love. For him, hip-hop's
allure is ever inviting. If the #1 global
success of "Men In Black" was the
appetizer, Big Willie Style is the full-course
dinner. "This is the first time I've been able
to make a record without any financial
constraints. Whatever video I saw in my
head; whatever producers I wanted to work
with. I had everything at my disposal and
this was my opportunity with no excuses."

Indeed Big Willie Style spares no effort or
expense. Cameo frontman Larry Blackmon
was brought into juice up his 80's classic,
"Candy." The only thing missing in the
studio session was him having the cup in,"
chuckles Smith. And it doesn't stop there,
Big Willie Style rolls out a bevy of super
producers including Poke and Tone, better
known as the Trackmasters, in fine form on
tracks like "Gettin' Jiggy With It," and
"Miami" with its walloping beats and
funk-inspired bass lines.

For those who thought Smith had forsaken
his life-long collaborator, DJ Jazzy Jeff,
perish the thought. "Don't Say Nothin'" and
"It's All Good" return to the magic of those
simpler earlier days. "We recorded it in
Jeff's house," Will says. "We're not going in
the studio, we're doing this in the crib."
Peep some of his nimble free-style work on
"Yes, Yes Y'all": "I rip rhymes for the flow
of it/you know the show of it/not the Benz
600 four-door of it/I'ma rhyme regardless
of earnin' long as my heart keeps
yearnin'/I got's to keep burnin'." However,
never far from earshot is Will's trademark
sense of humor. Witness the character skits
with Keith B. Real, voiced by Jamie Foxx.
Real is "the brother who soon as he sees
somebody successful has beef with it...you
know a 'player hater.'"

Bringing it down a notch, Smith has penned
a loving tribute to his son performed to a
sample of Bill Withers' "Just The Two Of
Us." "It's about capturing a piece of who I
am. In ten years, I just want him to have
something he could listen to....a snapshot
of what was going in his father's mind."
Smith also talks about Jada Pinkett, the
woman in his life, on "Forever": "She
makes me feel good, makes me feel that
forever is a possibility," Smith gushes. This
Big Willie is secure in revealing a tender
side. "A lot of people don't even believe
that."

Faith, family, friendships and the need for
a challenge are the forces that continue to
drive this fresh-faced wild-styled kid from
Philly. He has confounded naysayers
throughout his career. Big Willie Style finds
the international superstar humble, but still
at the top of his game. "Music is the most
difficult creative form," says Will Smith.
"Music is like a baby, you gotta nurture it,
every second of your life has to be
dedicated to the music. It's really a huge
undertaking."

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Page Updated Fri Jun 11, 1999 6:21pm EDT