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JJFP reunite for 50 years of Hip Hop December 10 ×
Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince Forum

JAZZY JEFF AND FRESH PRINCE ARE BACK | 2 LIVE SHOWS


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1 hour ago, TheFre$hPrince said:

He even told a story before performing Nightmare. He said that he was confident the song would be an absolute hit until they were sued by the movie company 

That's awesome, I wondered if he would stop periodically to engage with the audience. Damn I just want footage of the whole thing. (What I really want is a NA date) 

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with a new single maybe there's now hope for a new album, FINALLY???!!!  i guess our 12 year wait has been well worth it!

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OK, so here is my version of what happened yesterday, this may take a while, sorry its so long.

So i get to Blackpool at about midday, we were all so paranoid we'd have traffic problems etc, so we all agreed to just get their early. I soon discovered that Blackpool doesn't appear to have internet lol, so i was struggling to get on whatsapp to contact anyone. Me and my best friend Kim head towards Blackpool tower and discover Brakes by a lamppost. Soon Kev and Tim turn up and Kev's mate Tim. We all hung out in a weatherspoons (dodgy pub) just outside the venue, having a drink and catching up. At 3pm we notice a crowd is forming to we get in the queue. We then spot Michelle (fresh princess) and her husband, then soon enough the jjfp.com crew all join us one by one.

There were Will Smith t shirts everywhere, mostly fpoba themed but some JJFP ones too. There were also armed guards which is unusual in the UK, and we even heard they had a sniper on the roof. After the attack in Manchester arena, they took no chances. We finally got into the arena at 5pm.

We got to the front row and got chatting to some fans who were all really nice while waiting for the support acts. Kev then gets a message from Steve saying those who had met Jeff could go backstage. I felt like a jerk to the others at this point, coz we kinda disappeared, not really knowing what was gonna happen ourselves. We waiting by the side of the golden circle for Steve to appear, in the meantime Neil was stuck outside the arena in a massive queue and was due to come with us backstage. Steve comes out and says hes gonna have a word with security. In the meantime he somehow finds Neil and gets him in. We wait round for a while again and this massive dude comes who looks like hes in charge of security. They took it VERY seriously and had a word with us to basically behave haha. Steve says hes gonna arrange a time for us and will be back in 30 mins.

So he takes us backstage to all the trailers and coaches and tells us to wait in the musicians trailer. They tell us to help ourselves to drinks and snacks so we grab some water and energy bars. We hang out in there for maybe 30-45 mins. Jeff quickly pops by and says hey, we met Jeffs wife Lynette who was lovely. She remembered meeting the guys from years ago, i hugged her and said i'd never met her before, but she said she knew who i was. Lynette also said Will and Jeff have definitely got the buzz for more shows after seeing them get off stage after Croatia.

We ask Steve about croatia and he said it was amazing. He starts telling us this hilarious story, their hotel was on an Island, so they got to the show on a boat. He says there was this chick in the water just floating there trying to get to Will haha. Tim was like, its Loretta!

So Steve gets us and takes us past all the trailers and suddenly there he is, Big Will. He was talking and taking pics with people with professional photographers around. He sees us and comes over, he like "Come and get a photo" so somewhere we have a proper photo of us but i've no idea where we find it. We all say hi to him, the guys do their bro hugs and i say, "Can i just go for the hug". He then gets Brakes phone and takes a selfie of us all. Then the mayor of Blackpool comes over with his people, they start getting photos and make small talk. Will then come back over to us. I can't remember who said what, so you guys may have to correct me. We ask about the croatia show and Will says it was amazing. He then pulls his phone out of his pocket and starts showing us pictures. In my head im just thinking, omg i'm looking at photos on Wills phone.

Kev says something like its been a long time coming and Will says "Yeah hasn't it Jeff", Kev then calls Will out and says "Don't be blaming the wait on Jeff" haha. We then all get individual photos with JJFP. He says it was nice meeting us and i get a second hug off him, which my friend Kim captured on camera. He nips off into his trailer, and that's our queue to leave.

We get back to the golden circle and find a big space at the back, not as near to the front as we were before, but still super close so we can't complain. The show was incredible. I might get the set list a bit mixed up but Tim has a photo of the order. They start out with Boom, Will pops up, fire is coming from the stage with explosions and the crowd goes wild. It was number 1 in the UK and Will killed it. He then does brand new funk. Now a lot of casual fans won't know this, they especially don't know the video version. So when it comes on, the crowd is a little quieter, but not us. I looks over at Tim, Brakes and Kev, and us 4 are "Yo, let me talk to you, let me have a word with you". Tims cousin was a few rows back and could hear us.

He did a few big willie style tracks, Miami, Jiggy, MIB. He then takes us through the story of JJFP, he does Girls Ain't Nothin but trouble and tells the crowd it was their first single, then parents which won the first rap grammy, then threw nightmare on my street in. He then does "Just the two of us", its far from my favorite song but the performance was amazing. He had pics of his kids in the background, mostly of Trey, and was telling the crowd to tell whoever they're with that they love them etc.

So then he says he has a new song. I had no idea this was happening, i don't know how we didnt find out. He says he wrote it because there is so much negativity in the world, you need your inner light to shine. Out it comes and its a club banger. It probably won't be my favorite song, but i enjoyed it. I'm ok with some modern music, and it was basically him trying to go with the times. When the beat dropped the crowd went crazy, hopefully inspiring him to release it. I'd definitely like to hear a recorded version of it to appreciate it fully.

He does summertime which is obviously amazing and then leaves the stage, they come back on to an encore and does switch with the mix of the fpoba theme. There was 25,000 people singing it back to him. Then as it finishes a massive firework display goes off from the beach on our right (apparently Will paid out £40,000 for it).

I waiting so long for this to happen, and it was totally worth the wait, the show was everything you could want it to be and more and the added shock of "Lets get Lit" made it even better. We all went to the chippy to recharge our battery's and caught up on the days events and headed our separate ways. Our social media has gone nuts with our pics and Jeff has responded to all of us, he even shared my photo album on his page today!

Yesterday was incredible and i'm so glad i got to share it with you guys from the forum. Tim, your website made all this happen, and Brakes and Kev, we got backstage because of the relationship you formed with Jeffs crew. I hope this does happen again, but if it doesn't, i'm more than satisfied now. My ultimate shadow dream finally came true.

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Julie - great recap! I felt like I was there with you guys! 

The highlights of both shows are incredible. Boom! Shake the Room was KILLER! It makes me love the song even more. The fire, the energy, everything was incredible and brought the audience in. If they have more shows in North America, I hope they use that same opener. That's such a banger of a track and the live version doesn't sound dated. It sounds incredible. 

They really differentiate themselves from other rap artists because of their live show and chemistry. The live band really added so much. I wish they performed for more than an hour but the setlist was great and the videos and photos are spectacular. 

I'm loving the new song Get Lit and I hope it properly gets released. Did any of you guys get to chat to Will about releasing music? Anyone get any albums signed? 

 

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Jim, i'm praying Will does some US dates for you guys. We definitely put fire in Wills belly for you. We didn't talk to him about new music, we didn't even know about "Get Lit" so we didn't even ask them what the plan is for it. I already have a signed homebase CD from years ago, i was after a picture, which i got and then some.

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Ah man! Can't believe I have only just found this forum! I have been a fan since the early 90''s and have all their albums. I have been lucky enough to meet Jeff in my home town Nottingham when he did a set here. Last night was amazing! I have always wanted to see them live and still can't believe I did it last night!! I look forward to interacting with you all :-) I have some photos and videos from last night and will upload them when I figure out how to :-)

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