Long before Will Smith became infamous for losing his mind and slapping Chris Rock onstage at the Academy Awards, he had cultivated a public persona of being a gentle soul and a generally stand-up guy. All those things can be true at the same time of course (as Walt Whitman once said “I am large, I contain multitudes”), but the event was so shocking at the time that it has definitely altered the perception of Smith significantly over the past year.
As we flashback to the 90’s however, Smith was on top of the world. He was coming off the heels of a massively successful run as “Will” in the sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, broken into film with blockbusters like Bad Boys, Independence Day, and Men In Black, and kickstarted his solo career as a hip-hop artist after releasing five albums with the group DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
As a middle schooler growing up in that era Big Willie Style was impossible to ignore– it was everywhere, likely due to the multi-channel marketing push afforded to a film star like Smith whose on-screen superstardom made it a no-brainer to promote the album alongside his films. From dance-pop classics like “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” and “Miami” to the heartwarming “Just The Two Of Us” that features life-lessons sung to Smith’s first son Trey under the backdrop of samples from Bill Withers and Grover Washington Jr.’s classic song of the same name, Big Willie Style is a feel-good nostalgic romp through an era where every major film star and athlete had a rap album. It’s rare that they sound as good as this.
Standout Songs: “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It”, “Miami”, “Men In Black”, “Just The Two Of Us”
