Will Smith Talks About Major Music Comeback and 2016 Reunion Tour With DJ Jazzy Jeff
Will Smith is going to BOOM! Shake-shake-shake the room again—and on a larger level, pretty soon!
Last fall, the 47-year-old actor returned to his rap roots for the first time in 10 years, appearing on the remix of Bomba Estéreo's "Fiesta." On the BBC talk series The Graham Norton Show, in an episode airing Friday, he revealed plans for a larger music comeback, which includes new tracks and a tour with, yes, fellow Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum and longtime collaborator DJ Jazzy Jeff, 51.
"We've recorded about 25 songs and have four or five I actually like," said Will, who last released an album in 2005. "Jeff and I will be back here [in the U.K.] this summer to do shows, real shows."
The actor had made similar comments on Apple Music's Beats 1 radio on Apple Music in October, saying he has "probably" recorded about 30 songs and that he and Jazz planned to embark on their first world tour this summer.
"I'm terrified," he said, adding, "I'm really ready, man, I got a whole lotta heart to share and I'm excited about getting it into my music."
Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com
The two won the first Grammy award for best rap performance in 1989 for their hit song "Parents Just Don't Understand" and last released new music together in the late '90s. They have reunited for small performances several times over the years. In 2014, the actor joined the DJ at a Las Vegas pool party, where they performed their 1991 single "Summertime" and other tracks.
Will and Jazz also reunited on The Graham Norton Show in 2013 and rapped the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. They were accompanied by the actor's son Jaden Smith, as well as fellow former co-star Alfonso Ribeiro, who did his Carlton Dance. Will had also performed the track on the series a year earlier and also rapped on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last year.
Smith's role on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the '90s led to major acting gigs—notably Independence Day and the Men in Black movies. He later received Oscar nods for his performances in Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness. Smith recently played a pathologist in the sports drama Concussion, which earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. He did not receive an Oscar nod for the film.
He and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith are among the critics of the lack of diversity among the current roster of acting nominees for this year's Oscars. Jada was among the first celebs to express her views about it, posting several tweets, and the couple later vowed to boycott the ceremony.
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum Janet Hubert, the first of two actresses to play his character's Aunt Viv and who been feuding with Will for years, slammed the coupleover their stance about the Oscars in a scathing online video.
Following the backlash, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which votes on the Oscars, later revealed plans to double "the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020."
"I was very pleased at how quickly and aggressively the Academy responded," Smith told the BBC Friday.
"I think that it's not us and them—it's we," he added. "I'm a member of the Academy, so it's much more a domestic family issue than it is a civil rights issue, so it's a problem we all have to solve."
Share story
0 comments: