eagle1

He posted this on his IG. 

The album debuted #3. The press tour is definitely going to help on the concerts.

I love this. I don’t know if everyone will agree with me but I think his team have done a great job promoting this album on social media. He used to go on shows like TRL to promote it but the world is so different now. 
 
They know what people like, going viral with the anxiety video because they know everyone loves Fresh Prince, joining influencers on videos and doing stuff like this. 
 
It’s just seems to be getting bigger and although he’s getting a lot of hate still. I can see a lot more positive comments and love, particularly on this barbershop video. It was a good move.

This is hilarious! 

Great review of the album! Just one correction in this. You mentioned that he had played “attention” off of his phone in another part of that twitch stream, but that’s not actually accurate. He played “bulletproof” off of his phone on the stream, but before that he chose a beat out of a pool of 15 or so, and then went into the booth and rapped “attention” over it. He ended up doing it twice all the way through, with a few other attempts that the streamer bungled in between.
 
But when they were playing it back in the other room they were just playing back the recording that they had just made in the booth. 

Having 'Make It Look Easy' on repeat. Can't stop playing it! Such a nice, positive and catchy song 

Sounds like the second album is gonna have some hard hitting hip hop!

That “freestyle” is good! He needs to put stuff like this on the next album. 

As if Will is coming out with the best stuff of his career at age 56. He’s got more charisma in this than every modern rapper put together.
As a fan, we know he’s awesome but this even has me shocked how good it is.

This is fire!!

Listen to our thoughts on the album in the latest episode of the Will Smith Podcast:
 
 

Man it’s been 20 years but I was looking to find your review of the album. For real. Very much aligned with your thoughts. The cursing is my biggest issue - some ordering too of songs but I’m coming around to it as a total piece (rather than the sum of its parts).

I'd be repeating pretty much what everyone has already said here but the album is awesome. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the swearing but that's not a deal breaker for me.  Hearing the F bomb on a Will Smith album feels weird to me. 
I'll need more time with the album and I may be jumping the gun here but this might be in his top 3 best albums. 

Man, I am absolutely loving this album!!!! I love the barbershop, absolutely mesmerized by it.  Rave in the wasteland has got me, hard.  I love the sermons, his style on those are outstanding.  I’m loving all the different styles he’s rapping in, his flow is fantastic.  The hard times disco rap vibes so smooth, love it.  His message resonated with me in a major way, more than anything since code red.  Love the guitar on First Love.  The fresh feel of Make it Look Easy.  This is feeling very much like my favorite solo album, and second favorite after Code Red.   This album is way better than I was expecting.  So much better.  Fire, just absolutely fire. Beginning to end.

One thing I find funny about the reverand interludes is Will doing an old man voice when he is old now  On the Reverand in And in this Corner it was much more of a shift in his voice!

There's lyric videos for all the songs that don't have a music video...
 

I agree. The writing adds to the image. 

Man, the day has come. For Lost & Found, I want to Walmart to get the CD at midnight.  I wish I had that kind of experience this time, but I had to settle for buying it/downloading it at midnight.  I bought the regular version and the edited version. I drove around earlier today blasting the music on a super sunny 65 degree day. It was heaven.
1. Int. Barbershop - Day - I love this sound. More of this.  I like the banter on this track and that Will specifically voices the characters who are critical of him. The back and for with Jeff is so welcomed. It brings the energy of the JJ+FP albums. B. Simone is a welcome addition to them. 
2. You Lookin' For Me - Man, this is the Fresh Prince I love to hear. Especially those opening lines that borrow from Slick Rick. I love the lyrics and subject matter. The choir on the backup vocals sweeten up the kinda dark-sounding beat. 
3. The Reverend (Rave Sermon) - I'll say this about all of the interludes. I like the encouragement and the gems he shares. It makes me wonder if they would be better coming from Will straight, instead of through the reverend character. With albums, I tend to get tired of interludes after the first few listens. 
4. Rave In The Wasteland - Man, i love this beat and the energy. The subject matter is good, too. 
5. Bulletproof - I like the energy and lyrics on this one, too, but I think the production is leaning average.  Jac Ross has a great voice for this. 
6. Hard Times (Smile) - Man, I love this one I must say, I slept on Teyana, but this song makes me want to check out her music.  The slick, classic Hip-Hop meets R&B sound is my favorite. I like FP's relaxed flow and vocal presence. I'm so into this beat and the smoothed out chorus that I haven't really unpacked the lyrics yet.  
7. Beautiful Scars - I love the production on this. I like the changes in his flow throughout it. Admittedly, I'm not a Big Sean fan. I always though his voice and presence was weak and his lyrics un relatable. I like him a little more on this compared to anything else I've every heard him on. I would have preferred to hear someone else on the track who is more on Will's level.  No offense, to Omar, but I don't the auto tune chorus. I'd put someone like Usher on the chorus to upgrade it. 
8. Tantrum - I'm not saying it's bad, but this is my least favorite song. It's just kind of repetitive.  The beat is about as standard as you can get.  Will holds it down. I'm not crazy about Joyner's voice.  Why is Will kicking Joyner Lucas' butt on his own sound? 
9. First Love - I like the artistic move with this one. I don't think it gets enough credit.  However, I think it definitely takes down the pace of the album. I feel like it would serve better as a single or as a song oen one of the collaborating artists' albums.
10. Make It Look Easy - This is a really nice one. I love the sound and vibe. Like "Hard Times (Smile)", I think FP is the most comfortable on this sound. I guarantee this will be pumping through my car speakers all summer long. 
11. The Reverent (YCMI) - I nice message to lead into "You Can Make It".
12. You Can Make It - This is a highlight. Heck, it crossed over to be a hit on gospel charts. Will is emotionally raw on the song. Fridayy complements it well and hearing Sunday Service literally gives me goose bumps.  If this is the only real hit off the album, that's good enough. 
13. Work of Art - The beat is modern, but dope.  The lyrics sum up this era for Will. Jaden's feature is authentic and not forced. I know nothing about Russ, but his makes a mark on this. 
14. The Reverend (WOA Sermon) A nice send off for the album.
Overall I'm really happy with this album. I think it was weird that we heard so many singles off it before we got the whole thing. It made the listening experience kind of weird compared to having only heard a song or two. I feel like the songs that weren't released as singles are the glue of the album. Most of them are my favorites. 
I think my critiques are the sequence of songs. I feel like "Work of Art" should have been one of the first songs and that "You Can Make It" should have been the last song. I think the sound and production is kind of all over the place, which prevents it from feeling a completely cohesive album. I feel like I'll listen to some of these songs A LOT and some I'll only listen to when I'm in the mood to hear them. I haven't felt that about his previous albums.
I gotta be honest, Will cussin' in his songs still sits with me funny. I'm sure 99% of the time I'll be listening to the edited version of the album.
I really hope this album gets some shine.  It's a reminder that the Fresh Prince is a legit emcee and musician. This is good music....good Hip-Hop.

Been listening to it all day. Some of the songs that I didn't like much the first time are growing on me. I like the different styles and I like that he tried new things.

I am so happy with this album, it’s exceeded my expectations, been playing it all day.
 
The barbershop intro is the perfect start, that stuff needed to be said and it’s great to see Jeff on there. I’m enjoying “you looking for me”, it’s a middle of the road track for me.
”Rave in the wasteland” was a huge shock for me, seeing the title, it looked a little odd but when that beat started it was crazy. Sounds so different from anything he’s done, his flow is insane. Possibly my fave of the new, unreleased ones. 
 
Love “bulletproof” I think I heard it a while back when he did it live and I’ve been waiting to hear it properly. Definitely one of the better tracks of the album.
“Hard times” is great, I love RnB so the female vocalist sounds great to me. Only negative was Will wasn’t quite featured enough on it, but musically it’s beautiful.
Been playing “beautiful scars” lots the last few weeks, one of my top tracks of the album.
“Tantrum” has been out a while, I’ve seen most people love this one, I like it but it’s lower down on my list of tracks. Maybe I’ve overplayed it waiting on this album haha.
“First love” is my least favourite, the vocalist just isn’t my style and Wills flow just isn’t as good. I don’t dislike it so much but it’s just nowhere near as good as the rest of the album. Don’t know why they chose to release it.
Really like “make it look easy”, it’s grown on me a lot throughout the day. It’s almost like big Willie style vibes. Such a nice, chill, fun song.
I’ve always really liked “you can make it”. It came out when I was coming to the end of a tough couple of years, so it’s a special song to me.
I’ve always really enjoyed “work of art” too. Being the second song out made me realise we were gonna get some great music out of Will after 20 years.
Overall, love it. I think it’s perfect to come out with music like this after recent years. I’m ok with the swearing, he’s no longer got his squeaky clean image so he may as well haha. I’m hoping the next chapter/album has more fun, upbeat songs. But as the first one back, it’s just right.
 

This is a solid album. Bulletproof is an absolute banger.  Tantrum, too. I also really like Rave, Scars, Hard Times, and You Can Make It... The intro is mildly amusing, but for me, it’s a track to experience as part of the full album rather than something I’d play on its own. That said—unlike most on this forum—I actually like First Love.
Overall, I’m really enjoying this more aggressive, direct evolution of WS's music… and I’m about to cue up Bulletproof again! For me this is WS’s best release since Willennium.  It's obviously very different, but it reflects well where he is in life—just as that album did.  It's grown up and gritty.

Thank you! Feels like I never left (save for a few Facebook logins when I couldn’t access this account it’s gotta be over a decade now).
I hope Jeff is more present in the next two albums he releases this year (crazy to say multiple albums, even just one from Will). There’s a real opportunity with the nostalgia love society has these days - even bad nostalgia wins. Now with will and Jeff’s talent, it’s a win - win. They could both commercially and critically really do something special with a cover to cover fresh Prince and Jazzy album.

Welcome back!! Barbershop definitely feels like Mike Tyson. Never thought we’d get another track like that. Will even brought back his old man voice!

I kind of wish they included this writing in the BG of the album cover

Man I can’t believe we finally got here. 20 years to the day (almost) since Lost & Found was released. 
 
I was always going to love this album, no doubt, but it has completely surpassed my expectations. All of the new tracks (that we hadn’t fully heard yet) are incredible. Int. barbershop is classic JJFP with a modern self aware spin that completely blew me away. 
 
you lookin for me is incredible too. An interesting mix of old and new. It goes hard. 
 
Rave in the wasteland was completely unexpected. Very different feel, reminds of that short clip Will released years ago.(where he mentioned King Kong) has a “black skinhead” vibe mixed with Will singing, Listening to this track was the moment I knew this album was a certified banger.
 
Bulletproof is possibly my fav track on the album, feels like it deserves to be a hit track too. Bringing soul, rock, and rap in a way only Will can. 


Hard Times (Smile) is great too. I have a big soft spot for upbeat fun Will songs like this. I wasn’t sure at first, but when the beat hits off the top I knew I was in. Nice to hear will feeling positive again. I like teyana’s vocals too.
 
Make it look easy is a contender for my favourite track as well. Another upbeat positive song where Will is exuding confidence. Can’t imagine listening to this and not smiling. Love the hook too.
 
Not one of the new tracks was a miss for me. I really enjoyed hearing the tracks we have already gotten all together in one cohesive package. The interludes were great too. Just makes it all fit together nicely. It will be a lot of fun to listen to all 3 of these albums together when it’s all said and done. 
 
out of the tracks we already had, You Can Make It and Tantrum are my favourite. Both are fantastic for completely different reasons.
 
I really like beautiful scars and work of art as well, but I prefer all of the new tracks that were released with the album. I’m surprised they were released ahead of these. 
as many others seem to agree, first love is the weakest track for me. I still like it and it’s certainly growing on me. But it’s not a slam dunk like the rest are for me. I think I actually prefer team tomodachi over it. Certainly falls in a similar vein as fiesta & esta rico. I love will’s moments, but the rest is hard to vibe with. 
 
we’ve certainly come a long way from “get lit” FP is back imo. Couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come and to finally see Will (and hopefully Jeff) perform live.