Get Lit

[JumpinJack AJ]

This is all waaaaaaaay off topic.

FP dropped a solo single. This is a good thing. I suppose the question is what he's trying to achieve with it. Is he just putting it out into the world and that's it? It he actually trying to get a buzz with it to lead into an album?  If so, where is the music video? Where are the TV performances?

The Code Red sequel talk is tired. It's a dope album, but doesn't deserve a sequel...especially as a solo project. Code Red is a fan favorite, but commercially it didn't do that well. People outside of the JJ+FP fan base don't recall that album because it didn't have much commercial success. JJ+FP didn't tour with it and they did very few TV performances with it. "Boom! Shake The Room" got some video play, but "I'm Looking For The One (To Be With Me)" and "I Wanna Rock" got very little support. I used to watch MTV a lot back in the day and never saw the videos to the second and third singles. It wasn't until the JJ+FP Greatest Hits VHS came out in 1998 that I saw the entire videos. I had only seen a clip of "I Wanna Rock" on Beavis & Butthead. lol  Dope album, but stop trying to bring it back to life in 2017.

It's good that he dropped the song and shared his energy and the positive message. At the same time, the song isn't doing much for his career, other than letting us know he's not done with music. The song is getting some love and fans are supporting it. However,  a lot of music fans are being critical because of the production, which you'll see if you read the comments on any article online.

Let's support it and see what happens.

[bigted]

i guess i should be happy at this point will's doing any new songs musically cause after 30 years he's a hip hop icon that has nothing to prove, he's on the same level as LL Cool J, Dr Dre, Chuck D, Queen Latifah, KRS ONE, etc that could basically do what he wants at this point because today's new rappers ain't touching the old school! us fans should appreciate that they're here because we lost Pac Biggie Left Eye Heavy D and Guru etc, bottomline sure i wish that he'd do less movies and give a higher priority to his music but that's his peroggative not mine, i have to respect his career choice whether i like it or not...

Edited October 14, 2017 by bigted

[DefCEM]

long time no see. hope y'all doing well. glad to see some of y'all got the chance to meet JJFP.

Here are my 2 cents about the new track. I think Will just doesn't care about what other people wish for. He probably did this track because he felt like it. I think theres no other oldskool rap veteran who experiments as much as Will with his music. They all keep it true to hiphop and to their own style to a certain degree. Personally i don't like the track, just because thats not my type of music. Born2Reign was similar in that aspect. He did a lot of experimental/non hiphop stuff on that album too. And his latest releases Caution in the Wild and the other one before that was the same. He tries to reach the mainstream Top 100 music listener of today, but the thing is, there are thousands of people who are better than him doing that type of music. Those recent tracks are forgotten already. Come to think, that he's very insecure about releasing music, this will just make it worse, if you look at the critics.

To tell the truth, i think he never really cared about his music career. He could at least do some fan service and release some oldskoolish hiphop tracks with Jeff. Honestly i would find it better, if he released nothing instead. This stuff is not really convincing.

[DevilsJim89]

1 hour ago, DefCEM said:

long time no see. hope y'all doing well. glad to see some of y'all got the chance to meet JJFP.

Here are my 2 cents about the new track. I think Will just doesn't care about what other people wish for. He probably did this track because he felt like it. I think theres no other oldskool rap veteran who experiments as much as Will with his music. They all keep it true to hiphop and to their own style to a certain degree. Personally i don't like the track, just because thats not my type of music. Born2Reign was similar in that aspect. He did a lot of experimental/non hiphop stuff on that album too. And his latest releases Caution in the Wild and the other one before that was the same. He tries to reach the mainstream Top 100 music listener of today, but the thing is, there are thousands of people who are better than him doing that type of music. Those recent tracks are forgotten already. Come to think, that he's very insecure about releasing music, this will just make it worse, if you look at the critics.

To tell the truth, i think he never really cared about his music career. He could at least do some fan service and release some oldskoolish hiphop tracks with Jeff. Honestly i would find it better, if he released nothing instead. This stuff is not really convincing.

Hey man - I agree with all that you said.

I don't mind Get Lit as I do enjoy house and some EDM but he's not giving us what we want. We want BARS! Will needs to actually SPIT BARS. Once that happens, he'll get more attention online. I don't care if he wants to experiment, you have to as an artist. Caution in the WIld could've been so much better if it was a full song and if he didn't repeat the same 4 lines or so in both "verses". The Fiesta remix video was pretty dope - imagine if those visuals were used for a proper rap comeback song. 

I've been saying it for years that he's super secretive and insecure about his music...but says one thing and then says something else. He drops L+F saying how much he loves music and then never drops another single or album. In the music industry, if you don't have some recent, it's out of sight, out of mind and in Will's case - 12 years?! Completely out of mind. There's a whole generation of people who didn't know he was a rapper before the movies. 

Another example - back in 2005, he said he was going to do stuff online. Where's the website? He doesn't even have a legit website. How about a soundcloud? He's so out of touch. I don't think he's cared much either about his music career and truth be told - it shows.

One more example in 2015 - "Oh yeah Jeff and I are going to do a proper world tour because we've never done it and its going to be in 2016."  ....We got 2 shows in 2016. Not exactly a tour. 

I get he's the biggest movie star on the planet but give me a break - he doesn't have to make movies another day in his life. If you really wanted to do music - you do it. Don't say we're going on tour and then go sign on for another 2 movies....seriously. This is where my frustration sets in. 

If he wants to be taken seriously again regarding music, he needs to drop bars. Plain and simple.  You don't need to sell records anymore - just do it for the love and people will respond. 

[Hero1]

All fair points Jim but I'm pretty sure the 30 or so tracks he's recorded he isn't dropping any bars.. unless he gets with Jeff and does some proper rap tracks I don't like our chances of getting some hip hop out of Will these days...

[bigted]

welcome back to the board defcem and welcome to the convo jim! now @DefCEM i think Will Smith is similar to my other favorite rapper LL Cool J in the fact that they both like to do the Prince/Michael Jackson experimenting with their music, all of their albums have a different sound to them, I don't see nothing wrong with it because I appreciate all kinds of music, a lot of these so called hip hop heads want to hear the same thing all of the time and that's boring, sure I wouldn't mind Code Red 2018 but at the same time like AJ said that wouldn't make much sense the more that I think about it, Code Red was great for 1993 but 25 years later calls for something original, each album is a time capsule... now @DevilsJim89 realistically speaking in 2017 is Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, and Chance The Rapper spitting original BARS on the level of KRS One, Big Daddy Kane, and Rakim???? HELL NO, compared to the original MCS of the 1980s and 1990s 99% of today's rappers are wack including them, NO EXCEPTIONS, I rather listen to Nastradamus than any album by a current rapper in the last 10 years, will doesn't need to worry about competing with any of them he's running his own race, will could say 99% of today's rappers are wack just like Michael Jordan could say 28 NBA teams are garbage cause nobody touching 90s legends, i'm not a bitter old head saying that either cause anybody with common sense at any age could see that today's music is disposable art, i can't picture many people listening to today's rappers 20 years from now when today's albums lose replay value in less than a week and as kids mature they'll learn to appreciate albums like LL's "Todd Smith" and Will's "Born To Reign", and yes i'd definately like to see "Code Red 2018" and "14 Shots To The Dome 2018" to knock out today's wack rappers but really anything that they come up with will do with me...

btw i'm so PUMPED to see more life on this board FINALLY, posting on JJFP.com always beats posting on social media to fake people anyday!

here's the get lit youtube audio, let's promote this if we want new music cause even though it's not brand new funk it's still better than 99% of what's out:

 

Edited October 16, 2017 by bigted

[TheFre$hPrince]

I'd rather have new music by Will than promoting this song. Honestly.

Great to see that some more heads joined the conversation.

[bigted]

i'd rather see this song get lit get airplay more than 99% of what's out now and it'll led to more music if it goes viral so promoting it is a win win!

[JumpinJack AJ]

I'm pretty much agree with everything Jim said.

I like the song for what it is. I'll play it from time to time. It's just not my preference of what I want to hear from him. The songs we've heard from recent years are good songs. He always brings great energy and the lyrics are fitting for what those songs were, but I'll be waiting for a Hip-Hop song.

There's no reason to expect it to be a hit unless Will fronts the money to make it one. When I was talking to Carvin Haggins, he said how the days of people requesting songs on the radio is long gone. It's basically like paying for a commercial. Labels pay to have the songs played. The more they pay, the more play it gets. For an independent artist to break through, something very unique would have to happen, such as astronomical success on YouTube or social media.

[bigted]

well in the sense of the concept of albums i'm basically living in the past since on the most part the highest selling albums sell between 500,000 to 1 million now when 10-15 years ago it was 3 million to 10 million +, back in 2002 eminem sold over 10 million with eminem show but in 2013 with marshall mathers lp it barely sold 1 million, basically now even established artists like Public Enemy give albums away for free and they tour(even Jeff gives away a lot of his mixtapes on his website), the internet ruined the concept of having multiplatinum success but you could still be successful other ways...

Edited October 16, 2017 by bigted

[Hero1]

Yeah the music industry is basically dead these days. No one buys music. "Albums" don't even really exist anymore. Kids stream a song they like and that's about it. That's why I can't understand why Will even cares about a "hit song". Just do some JJFP for the longtime fans. 

[Jazzy Julie]

Jim hit the nail on the head with whats missing, bars. Will's a rapper but the last 3 songs hes put out barely have any lyrics in them. We know he can write them because he's wrote tonnes of incredible songs. Plus the world is so messed up right now, theres so much he could say.

I think Will has seen what Jaden and Willow do. They put music out all the time, they never chart, they just get attention from their fans. They seem to be ok with that and just do it to be creative. If Will isnt expecting to chart, he may as well make music that us guys wanna here and not try to fit in with the music scene right now.

I get the impression hes a bit lost, he wants to do it but hes not sure how. I get that, music is weird right now, its either EDM or a Spanish song and he doesnt seem to fit into any of that.

[bigted]

jeff seems to do it the right way as i said, that's the greatest resource, hang out for a week and get something done, FOLLOW JEFF WILL!

[TheFre$hPrince]

2 hours ago, Jazzy Julie said:

Jim hit the nail on the head with whats missing, bars. Will's a rapper but the last 3 songs hes put out barely have any lyrics in them. We know he can write them because he's wrote tonnes of incredible songs. Plus the world is so messed up right now, theres so much he could say.

I think Will has seen what Jaden and Willow do. They put music out all the time, they never chart, they just get attention from their fans. They seem to be ok with that and just do it to be creative. If Will isnt expecting to chart, he may as well make music that us guys wanna here and not try to fit in with the music scene right now.

I get the impression hes a bit lost, he wants to do it but hes not sure how. I get that, music is weird right now, its either EDM or a Spanish song and he doesnt seem to fit into any of that.

That's what I wish for. Just drop some music for the love of making music instead of trying to fit into some mainstream category. Drop the songs, drop an album without trying to go multi platinum and 100 million+ clicks on youtube. That's not what I'm waiting for as a fan. I want him to drop some bars on hiphop and break beats along with those jazzy scratches. Just do it! :D

[bigted]

we know jeff would bring out the best of will and us true fans would dig it and even though the masses don't really pay attention but the true heads have been digging into the return of quite a bit of the old school artists these days like wyclef jean, public enemy, krs one, big boi, snoop dogg, dj quik, and even unreleased music from the late great biggie on that duet album with faith evans, a tribe called quest, de la soul, mc hammer, bell biv devoe, common, busta rhymes, etc, JJFP would fit right in with the classic rap renaissance of 2017/2018 and sure they might never sell millions like justin bieber and taylor swift but there's always an audience for old school hip hop and it gets back to my point that they'll be forever relevant because they're bigger than the flavor of the month with more credibility!

Edited October 17, 2017 by bigted