A Play-by-Play of Will Smith Going Completely the Hell Off in the Booth

Will Smith hasn't exactly been on track this past year, releasing the regrettable EDM reject "Get Lit" as his comeback single. He seems to be undeterred, though, covering his son Jaden's forum-rap singles and doubling down on his extremely wholesome Instagram feed. Yesterday brought the news that the Fresh Prince will be releasing new music this year, aside from the soon-to-be FIFA World Cup anthem he's on that's being co-produced by Diplo. Smith uploaded a behind the scenes video (with the powerfully dad title of "Messing around in the studio…") of himself working on said new music, and as the trap beat heard in the background denotes, he's rebranding as something of a contemporary, "real" rapper. He's less Chris Gardner and more Captain Steven Hiller. "I got the beast back," he says at one point.

Though no release date is announced, Smith has the courtesy to preview a new song (possibly called "To the Clique") during the video. Will Smith's music is important, so we have to assess how hard he's going in on these dad-rap bars (and he is definitely going in here) line-by-line.

"That's twenty years of swag y'all just witnessed" - Confusing, because Smith has definitely been doing this since way before 1998. Maybe he's referring to the general period when Big Willie Style came out (1997). I'm not sure if this is the first time Will Smith has ever said the word "swag" but it doesn't sound cringey. He believes this shit.

"Rappers make it rain, let they money hit you / If I throw my money up, shit, I'll probably kill a stripper" - Mmm, okay see… This is hard but betrays the Will Smith brand. It's too violent and also he swore, which is the least Will Smith thing you can do.

"Down with the man in charge of wherever Uncle Phil is" - A good line that pays tribute to the legend James Avery. Also, at this point something amazing happens and the video plays host to various absurd visual punchlines, like so:

I might as well capture these whenever they show up because they are… a lot.

"Picturing a crib with me, my momma, and Obama"

"I'm an anomaly, do drama or comedy / Play Muhammad Ali or a white lady probably." - He's beginning to go harder here, as evidenced by the faces he's doing.

"Still, that's twenty years of swag y'all just witnessed / Stop the divorce rumors and mind your damn business" - An "ohhhhh!" moment if there was one. The beat cuts out. The engineer is really feeling it. This man is close to tears.

"Cause y'all be doing features, I be doing features" - A classic of emphasis similar to Jay-Z's "I'm not a businessman, I'm a business man" on the "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" remix.

The below image contains the line I was gonna write down anyways. He's right, of course.

"Wait, wait, wait, truly, just for the record / Directors make movies, I make directors" - Smith is spending a lot of time boasting about how he's still a star, which he is. Bright was one of Netflix's most streamed movies ever but also sucked, so it's really a testament to Smith's lasting popularity that anyone even bothered to show up.

Perhaps this song would be better if the beat didn't sound like if "No Church in the Wild" was made in 2002. Perhaps Smith's flows and wordplay are still extremely dated. That might be part of the charm, though. This is definitely better than "Get Lit," at the very least, so the Will Smith Midlife Crisis is over… for now.

Phil is on Twitter.