Will Smith is one of those Hollywood stars who can do it all, but is singing one of his talents?
Will Smith can sing, but it would be more accurate to describe him as a rapper. He had a successful career as a musician, and showed off his singing chops in Disney film Aladdin, but his musical numbers were heavily influenced by his hip-hop background.
Will Smith’s Music Career
Will Smith found success as a musician long before he gave acting a shot. Back in the late ‘80s, he formed a hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince alongside Jeff Townes, and they made quite a splash with their breakout hit “Parents Just Don’t Understand”.
This song won them a Grammy for the best rap performance, and they later went on to win another one for their best-selling single “Summertime”. They parted ways in 1994, after Smith decided to focus on his acting career, but stayed good friends and collaborated on several occasions in the future.
Smith’s solo career took off in 1997, when he recorded the theme song for his new film Men in Black. This track topped the charts around the world, and served as an amazing promotion for his debut solo album Big Willie Style that came out later that year.
Smith went on to release additional three studio albums on his own, and managed to win two Grammys for the best rap solo performance with “Men in Black” and “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”. He hasn’t dropped a new LP since 2005, but he’s still making music, and the list of his recent collaborators includes Nicky Jam, Bad Bunny, Marc Anthony, and Joyner Lucas.
Singing in “Aladdin”
Despite his extensive hip-hop background, Will Smith didn’t get a chance to act in many movie musicals. In 2019, he finally jumped on the opportunity to star in a film that would put his musical talent on full display – live-action remake of Aladdin. The role of Genie allowed him to take all the skills he cultivated as a performer and use them in a single movie.
“I got to act and it was comedy and beautiful dramatic scenes, I got to sing, I got to rap, I got to dance, I got to do action sequences – it was everything that I’ve trained and learned how to do over the last 30 years of entertainment and I got to it use all in playing the Genie,” Smith told Entertainment Weekly.
He was in charge of delivering two of the movies most bombastic musical numbers – “Friend Like Me” and “Prince Ali”. Performing these songs wasn’t an easy task, since Disney fans were very fond of Robin Williams’ portrayal of Genie, but Smith found a way to make them his own. Director Guy Ritchie encouraged him to bring modern flavor to these tunes by relying on his hip-hop background, and that’s exactly what he did.
