Will Smith hints at possible rap comeback with new song 'To the Clique'
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air is back with a fresh tune!
On Wednesday (May 23), Will Smith teased fans with an Instagram video of himself rapping in a recording booth in which he admitted that it’s been way too long.
“Gettin’ back in the studio. Just warmin’ up,” he captioned the Instagram post, which unsurprisingly has already surpassed 5 million views in less than 24 hours (as of writing this piece).
The sneak peek showcased some heavily self-referential lyrics. “20 years of swag y’all just witnessed, let me remind everybody who Will Smith is,” he raps. “Rappers make it rain, let their money hit ya/ If I throw my money up, sh*t, I’ll prolly kill a stripper.”
The new offering will be manna for fans of Smith the rapper, as his last studio album dropped way back in 2003 in the form of 'Lost and Found'.
Smith also shared another insightul video from inside the studio. “At my peak, I was doing a television show, a movie, and an album ever year. So I was churning out that kind of creativity. What happens is you get to a point where you get empty,” Smith says to open the video.
“I’m excited, I’m re-energized and I’m creating wildly like I used to… I got the beast back.”
The video then proceeds to a juicy preview of a new track called 'To the Clique', which sees Smith pepper references of practically his whole career so far - from his early success as the Fresh Prince to his current status as the patriarch of “the real-life Incredibles” and everything in between. "I'm an anomoly / Do drama or comedy / I can play Muhammad Ali or a white lady, probably" he raps, holding no punches back. "Still, 20 years of swag ya'll just witnessed / Stop the divorce rumors and just mind your own business," he raps, baring glimpses of his personal life raw for the listener.
As CoS points out, Will Smith has been teasing his return to music for quite some time. Back in 2015, he revealed the existence of 30 new songs, but to date, we’ve only heard one of them — a DJ Jazzy Jeff collaboration called 'Get Lit'. And though he reunited with Jazzy Jeff for a pair of festival performances last summer, plans for a full-fledged tour have thus far fallen by the wayside.
But this new teaser from him seems to signal a promising return.