Ah, Will Smith. Big Willie. Big Willie Smith. Every now and again, he takes a break from making emotionally shattering films and being gobsmacked by David Blaine to remind us that he used to be The Fresh Prince: prankster, rapper, brother figure to all. It’s no secret that he’s been plotting his return to rap for a minute now – spending 2015 giving “impromptu” performances of a different classic hit on every late night American talk show there is, appearing on a remix for the track “Fiesta” by Colombian electro tropical dance group Bomba Bomba Estéreo, and working with Kanye West. “I spent a week or so with ‘Ye and we went into the studio a couple of times,” Smith told Ryan Seacrest. “He’s trying to get me gassed up.”
And gassed he certainly appears to be while spitting the opening bars of “Miami” for the first time in years at a block party (well, as much as you can call a Suicide Squad event orgnanised by Warner Bros. a block party) in Miami yesterday.
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There’s a lot to be unpacked here, but the best things about the performance, in no particular order, are: how off beat he is coming in (he picks it up don’t worry), his co-stars Margot Robbie, Karen Fukuhara, and Jay Hernandez dancing along as he spits the lines “Nothin’ less than ill when we dress to kill/ And every time the ladies pass they be like ‘Hi Will!’”, how he finishes up with a call and response of “OH’s” that Fat Man Scoop would be jealous of, how he dresses exactly like Carlton now.
Watch below, and embrace the return of the original prince of rap.
