The Fresh Prince has still got it!
Lost and Found dropped in 2005 but 16 years later the Fresh Prince – let’s not forget Will is always an emcee at heart, is still fire on the mic.
Will had recorded this freestyle over the clique beat a couple of years ago. Jazzy Jeff had encouraged him to put it out there – Just drop it on YouTube Jeff said but Will was still too sensitive about his music and unsure of the response – so it remained in the vaults – until he finally put it out in 2018.
With Will’s new found love of social media – he is now blazing trails across Instagram, Facebook and YouTube – he has dropped the killer freestyle and the world stood up and noticed. Will was trending on Twitter hours after it’s release and was even getting love from the crowd that often clowned him – power97, worldstarhiphop, hiphopdx, and black radio – were all giving him his props.
On Instagram celebrities and rappers such as Jermaine Dupri, Marlon Wayans, Wale, Martin Lawrence and more recognised the fire Will just dropped.
Let’s have a look at the rhymes and just see how dope Will’s return was. Quote
Yes
Twenty years of swag Y’all just witnessed
Let me remind everybody who Will Smith is
Rappers make it rain, let they money hit ya
If I throw my money up, ****, I’d probably kill a stripper
That line right there was getting the most props. It’s cold – and if you are talking about money – Will even has a billion dollar “Just Water” business now – there is no comparison to other rappers. The line is the cold hard truth.
The illest, realest, Big Will-est
Down with the man in charge of where Uncle Phil is
This is a great shoutout to James Avery from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He was an incredible actor and is still sorely missed and yes God is on Will’s side.
Everybody wanna do Will Smith numbers
I don’t know if your life got that many summers
I don’t think any movie stars ever had 7 100 million dollar blockbuster movies in a row. Every July 4th, every summer Will dropped a box office hit and it will provably never be repeated.
I got inspired, quickly I unretired, the Fresh Prince just re-wired
I’m slightly modified, but still
People dancing and shaking and moving and wiling
I feel like I’m an alien, really, I’m kind of an island
This is important that he references the Fresh Prince. many kids today that were born post 2000 wouldn’t know that Will was dropping rhymes in 1985 or sharing the stage with rap legends such as LL Cool J, Run DMC, Public Enemy, Whodini and EPMD. He rocked shows with Jazzy Jeff a good 30 plus years ago and that emcee – the fresh prince – has never left him – no matter how big he made it in the movies or with a classic TV sitcom.
I might fly to China for nothing, find a designer
Fix up a crib with me, my mama, Obama
Murder all over the globe, guilty your honor
Imma become a Mormon, marrying Halle, Rihanna
I’m an anomaly, do drama or comedy
I could play Muhammud Ali or a white lady probably
Still, twenty years of swag Y’all just witnessed
Stop the divorce rumors and mind your damn business
I think this was a perfect opportunity for him to address the divorce rumours on the mic. I’m sure he was sick of the constant tabloid reporting saying Jada and himself were divorced or divorcing when they wern’t and here he has cold called them out. Quote
Rebirth of the clique track, ridiculous
What I charge for a feature, man that’s expensive
Cause y’all be doing features, I be doing features
So many tickets that theaters need bleachers
This is one of Will’s best lines using the double meaning of the word features.
More information from me than most teachers
More inspiration from me than most preachers
Social Media loves taking a quote from Will and posting it on all these inspirational pages and blogs – Will recognised this and called it out.
But wait, wait, wait, wait, truly
Just for the record, directors make movies, I make directors
Y’all dinner table: “What Y’all learn today”
My dinner table: “What Y’all earn today”
The real life Incredibles, last name Smith
Jada, Jaden, Willow, Trey
****, Y’all ain’t ****ing with my clique
And Will caps it off with the recognition of his multi-talented family which as had a string of success in music, movies and television.
The key take away from this rap from Will is that it shines a light on him as a legendary emcee and really is a stark contrast to modern rap and what is considered rap today. The mumble rappers are getting away with straight garbage but Will here has highlighted the importance of rapping clearly, using pauses and breaks to emphasise punch lines, injecting personality and inflections into his rhyming to give it character, and dropping bars that are both clever, thoughtful and sound great. The Fresh Prince is a true emcee – anyone who owns any of the Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince records knows this and his return to rap in 2018 couldn’t have been at a better time. He just showed all the younguns how it’s done.
