Hero1

I thought that would happen and everyone was predicting 16 million for it! seriously all these box office prediction sites have under predicted Will's last 5 movies.. :nhawong:

early crowd reports has POH drawing sold out shows.. should open at #1 with maybe 25 million..

this is insane! :wickedwisdom: :wickedwisdom: :wickedwisdom: :wickedwisdom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wirFSGHL7Q

nice one man :thumbsup:

thats great.. it highlights that no1 listens to the lyrics anymore and they are such garbage you dont even have to say anything..just mumble incomprehensively :4-only1ha:

seen the movie? what did you think?

thanx for all the clips.. great stuff!

20 fresh 23 rotten so far

Just to clarify.. Will actually writes the songs..he's got help from nas, kel spencer, mad skillz & common on the structure of rhymes, the words etc.. Having been in a room with Will writing rhymes, I can see how someone would offer some advice on how to word something, or how to make it flow better.. but the content and ideas of the songs are all Will.. Personally I dont see why he needs to do it.. Jeff has challenged Will he said just spend 2 weeks in the studio, no ghostwriters, no one else.. just Will and Jeff and see what they come up with.. Will's response? Film 2 more movies and sign up for about 3 more So Will doesn't have whole songs written for him.. but I dont think he should get any help with his rhymes.. Kel Spencer maybe could come in here and tell us exactly what he does.. Ghostwriting seems rampant these days..it may be why all the songs sound the same now :kekeke: Da Ace I feel what you're saying..you are putting your blood sweat n tears into what you love hip hop..and you wouldnt be true to it to have someone else writing your rhymes..

new skins are up :thumbsup:

Chuck D, guru, chali 2na all have great voices..

Jaden obviously did a good job so I'm not concerned.. but what about Willow in I Am Legend? :stickpoke: Anyway I'm more concerned about the "pursuit of happyness" being the "pursuit of money" :thumbdown:

I think if you listen enough to can pick up on ghostwriters.. when I heard the Lost & found track.. before the album came out(and i'd seen the credits) I knew skillz had his hand in that track.. Will was using skillz flow.. I'm not a fan of ghostwriting.. and a lot of it is still soing on.. people need to write their own material :bufordpusser:

Well whenever I heard D12's stuff I always thought that Proof had skills.. It would make a lot of sense.. Proof was highly talented.. and Eminem is clearly not at the same level these days

Congrats Will!! I'd like to see forest whitaker win.. man he shoulda won an emmy for his performance on the shield this year.. great actor

nero

i'm looking was done in philly.. ring my bell california hills perhaps..

Will-ful Like his 'Happyness' character, Will Smith's success isn't about luck LOOKING AT Will Smith's phenomenal success, it would be tempting to conclude that luck had a lot to do with it. He was lucky, perhaps, that his investor group (one that included basketball legend Julius Erving) did not agree to pay top dollar recently for the 76ers, a franchise they may be able to get next month on craigslist.com. Maybe it was luck that led him to Jeffrey Townes' basement, back in the day, establishing the triple-platinum friendship that became DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Maybe he was lucky to find a hit sitcom when his musical career hit a few bumps, lucky that his movie "Bad Boys" became a hit, lucky to land a role in "Independence Day." Maybe, but spend any time around the hard-driving Smith or the people who work with him, and you get a different idea. "What is it they say about luck - the residue of design?" asked Smith, in New York with his son Jaden to promote their new movie "The Pursuit of Happyness." "Other people say it's when preparation meets opportunity. That's a variation of the philosophy I got from my father, who used to tell me that slow and steady wins the race. "If the other guy is sleeping eight hours, you sleep seven, and you're going to win, period, it's that simple. I have huge faith in the other guy's unwillingness to give 110 percent. Huge faith." Smith plays Jaden's father in "Happyness," a fact-based story of a man who bucks homelessness to become a stockbroker and financial whiz. The man's name is Chris Gardner, and when Smith saw his life story on the TV news program "20/20," he must have thought he'd found a soul mate. Gardner, like Smith, is a fellow who could find a needle of opportunity in a haystack of obstacles. "You can call it arrogance, you can call it naïvete, you can call it foolishness, but I have an uncanny ability to make myself believe things," said Smith. "I make myself believe things because if you don't believe, it's not going to happen. And I don't acknowledge boundaries." Smith recalls that he'd only recently made the jump from the recording studio to television when he told friend-manager James Lassiter (his partner in Overbrook Productions) that he wanted to be the biggest movie star in Hollywood. "We said, 'OK, how can we make that happen?' So we looked at the top 10 movies of all time, and looked for patterns we could take advantage of," he said. They were easy to spot - special effects movies with alien creatures, and love stories. So, when Smith heard about "Independence Day," he lobbied hard for the part of the fighter pilot who saves his girlfriend, then the world. "If there was a stroke of luck involved, it's that producer Dean Devlin happened to be a huge Jazzy Jeff fan," Smith said, laughing - he still had to battle for the job, just as he'd battled to win the role in "Bad Boys," when the studio had insisted on comedian Arsenio Hall. There were more special effects and aliens in "Men In Black," and by the time the sequel had made him a triple-platinum movie star, Smith had already begun to yearn for something that would test him, stretch him, demand more of him as an actor. And, no, it wasn't "The Legend of Bagger Vance." It was "Ali," directed by Michael Mann, whom Smith credits with putting his instinct for preparation to good use (Smith spent a year preparing for the role), and who prevented Smith from using his audience-pleasing "go-to" moves. "I'm the Allen Iverson of the acting world," joked Smith. "How are you not going to let me use my crossover dribble?" Mann demanded more of Smith, and it paid off with an Oscar nomination. Smith said he got the same kind of grief from Italian director Gabrielle Muccino ("The Last Kiss"), who gave the superstar a pretty hard time on the set of "Happyness," once walking off because Smith was "posing," not acting. That's the kind of firm hand Smith wants - it was Smith who insisted that Muccino get the job when the studio wanted somebody with a Hollywood track record. "Gabrielle was totally protected by Will's star power," said Thandie Newton, who plays Gardner's estranged wife in the movie. Actors always worry that the studio won't support a rookie director, she said, "but that didn't happen because Will knew the movie would work if Gabrielle were allowed to make the movie he wanted to make." Newton was consistently amazed by Smith's bottomless energy and commitment on the set - juggling his roles as producer, actor, father. "I honestly don't know how he did it," she said. "I can say, though, that Will has incredible tenacity. And he shows it every day on the set." Gardner said Smith showed it in his research as well - he took Smith to San Francisco shelters and train terminals where he and his son spent nights. Smith noticed something that most people don't. "He said, 'A lot of these people are dressed up to go someplace.' That's true. Twelve percent of homeless people have jobs," said Gardner, who hustled his way through a stockbroker training program while living on the streets. There are no space aliens or special effects in "Happyness," a performance-driven movie that looks at homelessness and also at paternal devotion. The movie downplays race, but its story of an African-American father's fierce devotion to his son is conspicuous on screen because too few movies offer anything even remotely like it. "In putting the movie together, we never had any conversations about that," said Smith. "The story is based on a specific trauma that happened to Chris as a child, and his reaction to that trauma." Gardner was disowned by his father, and vowed as a consequence to be the best father he could be. "But I think the feeling that we get about the connection between father and son illuminates the statistical reality of the missed connection we see in society," Smith said. http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/living/16227249.htm

Well said Ted.. I dont care whether hes in peoples top list of rappers or whateva.. he's one of my fav rappers and thats all that matters

:bowdown: "you can't live in that fancy car when you're advance is gone.."

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0650,wilonsky,75284,20.html

Those last 2 reviews I agree with.. maybe they should have used chris gardners story to tell a broader picture.. overstating all these "feel-good" moments really is unneccesary.. based on the reviews of course..still waiting to see the movie myself..

That's EXACTLY how I feel! And it wasn't only that they listened to all kinds of music, but they were genuine in who they were and didn't follow any trends or copy anyone directly. Each took their influences and created their own sound. Now it's just bitin to make money. I think Weird Al's "White & Nerdy" is a better rap song than what most of these "hip hop artists" put out (notice I didn't use the word "rapper"). That song sure describes me well. :bandana: Atleast people like us are still around to keep hip hop alive..

You can still have a great performance in an average or poor movie..

Go Jaden :1-say-yes: