
The Big Willie design is back in action.
Does Smith has made an appearance in song. The” West Philadelphia born-and-raised” singer and actor who became famous in the late 1980s as one-half of the trio DJ Jazzy Jeff and the New Prince, hasn’t released an album under his own title since Lost and Found in 2005.
When Smith makes his first solo album, Based On a Real Story, out on March 28 on Slang Records, that may change, starting next month. The ensemble includes contributions from Jeffrey Townes, Smith’s former lover, Teyana Taylor, Big Sean, Joyner Lucas, and Smith’s son Jaden Smith.
Smith, who made his solo debut with 1997’s Big Willie Style and made the recognizable hit” Gettin’ wit It,” teased the project with the single” Beautiful Scars” earlier this year.
Smith will also be able to download” You Can Make It,” which he released with Fridayy and the Sunday Service Choir last year, with a handle that shows him sporting a Phillies jacket and cover.
Smith revealed to Billboard in January that the song was the result of soul searching that had begun when The Emancipation was being made in 2022. He claimed that it continued after the incident at the same year’s Oscars meeting, when he slapped Chris Rock during a live broadcast after the actor mocked Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
” After the Oscars, that spiritual research continued, and there appeared a whole new world inside me that I didn’t even know existed.” Goals, visions, and areas of my inward landscape that I had not known existed three years ago,” Smith said on Billboard.
At this year’s Grammy Awards, Smith narrated the” In Memoriam” category for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air professional maker and his coach Quincy Jones.” And that opened up this boiling open up what I’m seeing and experiencing,” Smith said.
” The exuberant sort of pleasure I remember from chapel when I was a child and the ability to make this place more bearable are two things that I’m most proud of today.” I’ve often had a crazy mind, you know, that’s a part of who I am. However, there is something brand-new happening that demands that I observe artistically.
Smith has also made an announcement about his” Based On a Real Story” journey, which begins in Rabat, Morocco, on June 25 and continues through Europe through the summers, culminating in Paris on September 2. Dates for the North American have not been announced. Viewers can sign up for early exposure at willsmith.com/#tour but the information are not yet available.
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