We all went ape shit when Will Smith rapped some bars on Bomba Estereo’s “Fiesta,” signaling his return to music. Yes, it officially means Big Willie is here.
Earlier this week, the 47-year-old rapper/actor sat down with Zane Lowe to talk about his venturing back into making music again, a possible world tour with DJ Jazzy Jeff, and what we expect from him in the future. As he says about his forthcoming songs:
I'm pretty much poppin' in the studio every day, and I'm looking for artists to collaborate with, and I'm trying to find that voice. I have so many things that I wanna say, and I'm struggling with saying them in a way that fits the flavor of music that I tend to like. I've got a lot of young artists and young philosophers trying to help me extract the ideas from my mind and my heart. But I probably have 30 songs — six to seven that I really, really like.
During an interview with Rolling Stone, Smith’s partnerJazzy Jeff revealed more insight on their reunion. Although there’s no solid release date to the duo’s upcoming album, he says the recording timetable will be in schedules and sections.
“It could be any time like, I'm home for two weeks and we're going to get together and do something. That could really start off with me sending him something and him recording it and then us getting together,” Jeff says. “But the only way that I will [record the finished track] is if we are in the studio together. That's how it's always been. I’m not worried about me at all. I think the beauty of it is that he started it, and he's ready to go.”
When he was asked about if he thought a follow-up to 1993’s Code Red would ever happened after touring all these years, he responded, “Let me put it like this: You don't retire from an art. This has always been inside of him and he's always wanted to do this. He has never stopped rapping.”
He later added, “There has never been a time that he didn't jump on my microphone when we're together, because that is in his blood. You think you're going to be around a basketball court with Michael Jordan and he is not going to shoot? That'll never happen! I’m just happy that he's at the point where he's like, "You know what? I really want to do this." And the whole idea is he realizes he wants to have fun. I can tell the level of enjoyment he has from doing it.”
Head over to Rolling Stone to read the full interview. Jazzy Jeff also shared a memory of when Will rapped a verse to Kanye West’s “Clique,” but he never ended up dropping it. It sounds like it would have been flames.
