Saturday, February 28, 2009

Will Smith

I want you to argue with me that Will Smith is not the coolest dude to ever be in front of the camera. Ga' Head I dare you argue that with me.

Born Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. on September 25Th, 1968 is an actor, film producer and rapper. He has enjoyed success in music, television and film. Newsweek has called him the most powerful actor on the planet. Smith has been nominated for four Golden Globes, two Academy Awards, and has won multiple Grammys.

Smith, was born and raised in West Philly. His mother, Caroline, was a school administrator who worked for the Philadelphia school board, and his father, Willard Christopher Smith, Sr., was a refrigeration engineer. He was raised Baptist. His parents separated when he was thirteen and divorced when he was thirty-two. Smith's charming and sly demeanor in school resulted in the nickname "Prince", which eventually turned into the "Fresh Prince". While still in his teens, Smith began rapping and eventually began collaborating with Jeff Townes (a.k.a. D.J. Jazzy Jeff), whom he met at a party. He attended Overbrook High School in West Philly. D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince was born with Smith handling the rhymes and Townes overseeing the mastery of mixing and scratching – the combination was a pop and hip-hop hit during the 1980s and early 1990s. While it is widely reported that Smith turned down a scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he never applied to MIT, although he was admitted to a "pre-engineering program" there. According to Smith, "My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who worked in the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college."

Smith started as the MC of the hip-hop duo along with Dj Jazzy Jeff as well as Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes) as the human beat box. The trio was known for performing humorous, radio-friendly songs, most notably "Parents Just Don't Understand" and "Summertime" (THATS MY JOINT) They gained critical acclaim for winning the first ever Grammy in the Rap category (1988). He had a line in "Voices that Care", a 1991 Gulf War song by a celebrity group.

Smith was nearly bankrupt in 1990 due to over spending and having his income garnished by the IRS when the NBC television network signed him to a contract and built a sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, around him. The show was successful and launched his acting career. Smith set himself the goal of becoming "'the biggest movie star in the world'," studying box office successes' common characteristics. Although he made a notable dramatic film debut in Six Degrees of Separation while still appearing in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Smith's film career took off with his role in the buddy cop action film 'Bad Boys' in 1995 along with co-star Martin Lawrence.


^The Fresh Prince Indeed^
Jada-Pinkett's Husband,
Lil Jayden Smith's Pops
WILL SMITH
lol

Aight ya'll in an UN-presidented Black History Month event I'm going to skip the rest of the sited story and go straight to my...

Personal Thoughts: You gotta problem?
I honestly don't know where to begin but I'll go on and say: That I DO NOT believe that there is any person in my age bracket that is not a Will Smith Fan. Lets Begin with his music: Okay most people don't consider him to be a rapper but he's just as much a rapper as any other rapper mentioned in my blog this month. A cleaner less aggressive rapper of course but still a rapper. And who can forget 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'.... Will Smith was the coolest teenager on television and he was the person to look up to for various reasons, Before we had the Internet to tell us what the New Jordans were I used to watch Will and see what he had on his feet. It Never failed, 5's, 9's 11's Flights, these are just a few that I can remember off the top of my head that he wore on the show. He was hilarious and he made getting into trouble (of course not serious trouble) look like so much fun. Shortly after the last episode of the show (Which I can still remember as if it were yesterday) I remember seeing him in movies and I have been keeping up with his work since. Independence Day, Men in Black, Enemy of the State, etc.... I don't remember a time (except for in Wild Wild West--Sorry prince but you missed me with that one) that I sat down to watch one of his flicks and didn't get drawn into it. He's such a talented actor that you completely forget that its not the actual Chris Gardner (The Pursuit of Happyness) or the actual Muhammad Ali (Ali) on screen. This one goes out to my boy Will "The Fresh Prince" Smith.

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