Album Review: Based On A True Story by Will Smith

Or so it would seem, anyway, from the opening of Based On A True Story, his first album in two decades. Within moments of hitting play on "Int. Barbershop - Day", he's putting everyone and everything on blast - the haters, the sycophants, himself. "Fuck him and fuck you too" indeed. Smith and his ….

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Following that Oscars slap, could the sometime Fresh Prince's first album in two decades be a raw, cathartic, mask-off moment? At his peak, Will Smith was a pop-rap powerhouse, his family-friendly charm and DJ Jazzy Jeff's slick production helping to commercialise hip-hop. He won the first-ever Grammy for Best Rap Performance, became a household name in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and later proved his dramatic chops with an Oscar-winning turn in King Richard. But all of that was eclipsed in an instant by his infamous slap at the 2022 Oscars, a moment that left him ridiculed and frozen out of Hollywood's inner circle.

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Remember when Will Smith was the fun rapper? The enormously affable, uncomplicated rapper? The giddily cheerful Fresh Prince behind "Parents Just Don't Understand," the Big Willie Styling hunk of "Jiggy Wit It," and the sunny seasonal greeter from the anthemic "Summertime"? Smith doesn't. At least not judging from the weighty rationalizations (or downright excuses, you decide) that drive the convoluted hip-hop of "Based on a True Story," his first new album since 2005. Many things are bringing Smith down, or pushing him to endless self-examinations, as he (mostly implicitly) deals with the fallout from that angry slap during the 2022 Oscars and its immediate effect on his good-guy rep.

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It was only a slap. Sure, Will Smith's intrusion onstage at a high-profile awards ceremony is global news, and instantly meme-worthy but… it was only a slap. Should Chris Rock have made those jokes? Nope. Should Will Smith seek out anger management classes? Probably. Should he have made ….

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