Will Smith On Oscars Fallout, I Am Legend 2, Bad Boys Legacy, Quincy Jones & More | Drink Champs

[Music] be killer beats in the hood. [Music] Hey hey hey hey. [Music] What it good be? Hope to me. This is your boy N.E. What's going on? It's DJ EFN, this Milit Crazy World podcast. Make [Applause] some now now.

When we started this show, we said that there wasn't an outlet for people who have been seasoned in this game, for people who have been 10 years or more. With the person that we about to introduce, the person that we're talking about, not only is he seasoned, he's making look good; he has dominated every world. For when you talk about your parents not understanding, to sitcoms, to movies, to dominating, goddamn jumping out a goddamn plane, preach this [ __ ] don't care. He is the presential. When you think of Black Excellence, when you think of a person who came from the hood and made it somewhere and kept going, this is the [ __ ] picture you should see in the dictionary: M for not just Black people, for all people throughout the world, for people who made it from the bottom and really, really, really made it to the top. This man has dominated so many fields; we are proud of him; we are happy to have him on the show.

In case you don't know what we talking about, we talking about the one I'm about to say: Fresh Prince. That's right, cuz that that's what I'm going with it. Yes, we take it all back, but we going to say Will. [Applause] SMI. Yeah, yo, hey. But you can't forget we're in Philly, we're in Philly, in Philly. Which, by the way, let me just tell you something, I'm going to be honest with you, and I know some people from Philly going to question this, this this what I about to say. Well, just be careful, cuz you still here. Yeah, I know. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared. I've been scared. I am I am. You don't know what I was to say. I am, cuz first of all, Philly is my number one market, from me being from New York, and even in Drink Champs, I believe it's always been our top five market. But this is the first time ever I flew to Philly and I seen clear blue water. Yeah, I was like, did Will Smith buy some synthe? Did this [ __ ] just AI Philly? I saw blue water like, going to Philly. I mean, I'm coming from Miami, coming to Philly. I was like, did did you buy some [ __ ] out? Yeah, you you know, cuz I knew y'all was coming. Switch. We hit the we hit the switch when when uh luminaries are coming. But um uh um you got a street named after you.

Yeah, congratulations, man. Yeah, see our people, not only when they get a street named after them, but most of the time it's always after they pass away, and it's most of the time almost after like they they reach their Glory Days, and it's like kind of like when they reach it down, like you're you're you're on top. Y for sure. You're not dead. Yeah, yeah, not dead, not dead. You're not dead. You're well. A couple days last year, I wish I was. But but so how does this happened? The mayor calls you? Yeah, and and what do they say? No, so you know Charlie Mack is uh that's that's my dude, and uh you know he's really connected with the city and stuff like that, so he's a you know he's always you pushing for stuff like that. That's my that's my day one ride or die. Um, you know, so it they they made contact, and you know it's funny, it was like really strangely emotional for me. It's like, you know, cuz I I won award W's and stuff like that, but the it's a it's a street named after me in front of my high school. It hits this right, so and and it hit it hit real different, and my mom is sitting there, and the mayor presents it, you know, and it was like, and it's called Will Smith Way. Wow, right? And it really it really hit me with the idea of like, what is the Will Smith Way? The kids are going to come out and cross a bridge and think about the Will Smith Way. That was that was heavy. So do you think that do you think your your neighborhood will have crime in it, or we going we going to put bad we ending that? We ending that. End that. No problem. Right, right, right. We only only elevating. We only we only elevating. We learning and growing and evolving. Right, right. So so I'm going bounce around a little bit. I'm going to have a drink. You like to have a drink? Yeah. What they got? What they put in here? Um, okay, I don't know. Some Will Smith juice. Just let you know I was like, I was say, you know, I to do like Drink Champs, I wanted to sit with y'all, but like I'm I'm a drink chump. So we better get listen, we we going phrase that. I'm be listen list. Yeah, it ain't no I'mma be no good. One drink. Okay, one drink. So what Dr? We have a beautiful Philly bartender here, uh so would you like to serve Will a drink? I youa and I keep it real simple. What's your name? Amanda. Amanda. How you doing, Amanda? Let's make noise for Amanda. So so we G. Okay, all right. Um, we going to bounce around a little bit, right? All right. Do you realize it might be my opinion, but I believe everyone else in in in here is probably going to say the same thing. Bad Boys franchise might be the best franchise in movie history. Okay, I'll take that. I'll take that. Definitely your opinion. You know, some people going to disagree. Well, name somebody who dis. We only talking to Gotha. We only talk the the go. Oh, The Godfather. We only talk Godfather. For sure. Godfather. That's because that's all seriousness. They they was throwing fishes and [ __ ] if y'all was throwing fishes and somebody, you know me, we be we going to add some fish next time to be up there with the Godfather. But that's okay. It's hard to do what we did in Bad Boys. The the one thing I'mma that uh I'm going give us cuz you know I can't say it about myself, but I can't I do agree with you. I do agree. Yeah, but like 27 years after Bad Boys to that's what I'm that still to be able to do a third one, 27 years later, and then be able to do a fourth movie, and they all are increasing in in the box office success. That's that's hard to that's hard to do. I realized how dope it was, and I realized how good you was the actor when I realiz you got DJ Khaled to promote pork. You got a mus. I'm sorry, but it's true. It's true. It's you just going at C this whole time. I'm just saying. Can take it. He's a funny guy. Tell you very funny, my brother. So on on Bad Boys 3 call, you know, he was having a hard time with his lines and stuff like that. So on Bad Boys 4, he decided he was going to be perfect, so he stayed in character. Oh, so I was like, yo, C, so listen, like in the in the the parking lot coming into work, I was yo, Cali, what's up? What's up, Mike? Yo, hey, what's up? A nice guy. He stayed in character for like two weeks. I didn't see him out of character. I was like, CED, you doing a lot. It's just it's Bad Boys. You you don't have to do method active for Bad Boys. He stayed in there hard though. But no, he did a he he did a really he did a good job. Like the I've watched the movie in 10 countries, and when Call comes on camera around the world audience is like they they just he got a thing. People just love seeing him. So as my friend uh Capone walked in from Capona Nora and I'm thinking about our Legacy, how you feeling, man? Um um one of the first records on the album, by the way, you was starting on that album. Yo yo, I ain't going to lie, get into it. I'm listening to that. I'm like, yo, you trying to show you. I feel like I feel like you had something to prove. Yeah, no, I had I more than something to prove. I had something to say. Right? And you know I felt like the the the the first track on the album is called uh barber shop. Barber shop. Yeah. Interior Barber Shop day. You you was having fun on that. I was having fun. Right? So what I wanted was like, you know, let everybody know I know what y'all been saying. Some what reminded me of somewhat what Eminem did, like you said everything about so no one can say absolutely like it's uh it was based on uh Eddie Murphy's barber shop scene from Coming to America. Right? So I played three characters on the track. Um uh Jeff played one and B Simone uh played a character. But what I wanted to do was to really to set it to rap, so the people are talking, but they're talking in rhyme form lines back and forth. So I wanted it to be a really unique uh kind of creation where I got to just say everything that I wanted to say. Um uh it's it's like it's in the back of people's mind. So first track, I want to get it out, so we can you know open up to talk about what I want to talk about. The intro right into the track, then like Abby dby. I was like, oh, he so let me ask you. Yeah, we standing in a burning Forest. Mhm. In a burning Forest. They they they know where I'm going. Yeah, okay. We're in a burning for burning Forest. You got one bottle of water. One bottle of water. But this one bottle of water can save somebody, but you got two choices. M. You got Martin and Lawrence there. Damn. And then you got Jazzy Jeff. Damn. Wow. Ended out for me. Damn. It's Martin Lawrence and Jazzy Jeff, and it's one bottle of water. Yeah, I heed that [ __ ] in the forest, and we all die together. I was going to say about that component EFN. I did not have that answer, guys. You drinking the water looking at him. I'm like, y'all [ __ ] up, man. Yeah, ain't no way. Ain't no way. I wouldn't I wouldn't be able live with myself either way. We are we going to all end it right now. Okay, so let's let's speak about Jazzy Jeff, right? Because that relationship to me. Yeah, man. Um and we all know the industry. That's a really really good question, by the way. Thought about that all night. That's a really that's like all that's a really good thank we CLI that. Okay. But but that's that's a very seldom thing in in this industry, right? When you look at people who had 25-year relationship, right? And then God bless me, cuz I'm not coming at this new generation, but you see these guys, they last a year or two. They can't stick with the manager. They can't stick with the road person. They can't stick with everybody, but you and Jazzy Jeff have like a a 30-year uh career. But then you you don't you don't have just one. You have this Martin Lawrence. Um same thing. And then I've read somewhere or heard somewhere where Martin Lawrence didn't even want you in Bad Boys. No, no, it was it was the other way. The studio didn't the studio didn't want me. Martin had the script. Wow. Right? So the studio didn't want me, and Martin said he wouldn't do it if it wasn't with me. Oh, wow. Right? So Martin wanted he uh he had the script, and you know he was looking at Eddie, and his sister was like, you know, I really think you need to do this. His sister was I really think you need to do it with Will. And he thought about it, and he called me, and we had a meeting, and then the studio was like, yeah, no, you know, it's like be both of us were we were successful on TV, but we weren't Eddie. Right? So they wanted to do it with Eddie, and Martin was like, after we met, he was like, nope, were. Y close already at that point? Not we weren we we met. Um, he called me to come to his house to pitch Bad Boys, and we met. We had a dinner at his house, and we met that night for Bad Boys. That's dope. Yeah, and then just ever since then it's it's like it's hard to have um real relationships. What you know, but like in this business, it's hard to have it's hard to have real relationships because what happens, especially you know in in movies, you're talking about you know five 10 20 Mill no 20 million. Right? You talking about you're talking about real talking when you're talking about real money. It's really hard for somebody to make a decision for a relationship over a decision for money, you know, and it's it's like Martin is you know one of those relationships. It's like one of one of my only my my real relationships are before movies, like you know we in Philly, and you looking around, and like you know like the the youngest of my squad got 20 years, you know. I see C old here. He old as mother my [ __ ]. It's my [ __ ]. You know? So it's like, you know, I'm in in this season of my life, I'm really taking notice to those things. Right. First day on the set of uh Bad Boys 4, you know, I'm doing I'm going going, and Martin said, hey hey, he said he said, man, we made three of these, and we don't really remember a lot. He was like, we gonna pay attention for this one. Okay. When he said we remember a lot, what mean? Cuz we just like we were running running running, not paying attention. He was like, no, no, no, no. It was day one. He was like, no, slow down. And it's like we going to take in. We're going to live in the experience, you know, and it was really good, and we kind of settled down. He was like, we going to make the movie. It's going to be good, or it's going to not be good. Right? He was like, but what we have is our attention, doe. And I was like, got it. And we just really just settled down. And it's like, you know, that's my that's my dude right there, man. Like he is as as authentic a person as you will ever meet. Mhm. Martin. Martin. Why was it a culture shock going from the music side to the Hollywood side? You it was um yeah, it was really it was different in the in the sense that um so music is really current, right? So you're you're making the stuff, you're in it, and it's really current, right? And then what happens when you into television? It slows down a little bit. It's like five-month delay. You make something, and then it's you know five months before it comes out. Then when you get in a movie, it could be 2 years. Years before it comes out, and it like it just loses the the immediacy of it. So for me, that was that was um uh the biggest difference in the biggest difference like in in the expression of it. It's like you don't get to you don't get to um create and get it out in a timely fashion where you you're checking in to see how people feed. You're getting the feedback, right? So it's it's harder to stay uh current with with movies, television than it is with with music. What about the environment though, in terms of that, in terms of the people? Um, you know, I've been I've been blessed, man. Um, you know, immediately on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I was with Quincy Jones, right? You know, that was his idea, right? It was uh yeah, so Quincy Jones has it was about him, correct? It was no Benny Medina. Medina was with Quincy Jones. Benny Medina was a an anr exact at Warner Brothers Rec be JLo manager, and he was he was JLo's manager, and he um had an idea. It was based on his life, so he went from Watts to Beverly Hills, right? And Quincy changed it, you know, West to he changed it to Philly. He was like, what's your rap name? I was like, Fresh Prince. He said, okay, that's the character's name, Fresh Friend. Where you from? Philly. I said, oh, I'm from Philly. He said, oh, man, I got some stories about Philly. We not going to talk about it, you know. But Quincy changed it to Philly, and then he said Benny. Benny grew up in Beverly Hills, and we were at Quincy's house, and he was like, this is Bel-Air. He said, you like this house? I said, I like this, yeah. He said, yeah, Bel-Air make Beverly Hills look like public hous, right? He was like, you know, [ __ ] Beverly Hills, it's Bel-Air. So Quincy changed it, like literally in one night, he changed it to Philadelphia to Bel-Air and named the show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Yeah, before even pring before. Yeah, before I even audition. Rest in peace to that time. What you the first rapper doing a sitcom? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Fresh the the U. Now I got to ask, hold on before you go, cuz at that time, doing anything commercial. Yeah, it was all bad. It was frowned upon. But you making this moneyed upon. That's a light that's a light light. It was like you was doing foul [ __ ]. Yeah, it was foul. That [ __ ] was whack. People were getting hards about that [ __ ]. That [ __ ] was whack. That [ __ ] was corny. And Will Smith ain't [ __ ]. But you making the money. You got the the the the Hwood. You going from Philly to actual Hollywood. How was that experience? You know, it it was um more more than Philly, Hollywood. That was hard. It was the Philly LA. That was hard. Okay. Like they got different rules in LA, and it's it's like you you you learn a hard way walking around in LA with your red Phillies baseball cap on, like yeah, that's P. Oh [ __ ]. I didn't even realize that. Yeah, I was like, we we was learning learning the hard way out there. It's like they just it's it's it's different different rules. Um, you know, so the the the first thing was like trying to just get the the the lay of the land of how to you know how to move out there. Um, in terms of Hollywood, um I I guess the the really like the the the big issue in the transition uh for me was more about acting. The difficulty was about acting versus rapping. It's a whole different thing to like be looking in somebody's eyes and say a line. You say from the sitcom to the movies. Well, no, no, from from music to the like a music video. This is yeah, it's not it was like a really different different thing that was was uh hard for me. And I was like mouthing people's lines and stuff like that. So it was like yeah, it was terrible. It was terrible. That the big transition was like Quincy never asked if I could act. He just he saw my music video, so he assumed that I could act. So I was on the set of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and never had really done anything Inc, you know. So it was like that. But you know, Quincy had the power to do that. What was your first serious role? Because you know, at the end of the day, they all thought, you know, rappers are fads, right? And then you know you're on the U um Fresh Prince and it's working, but then it's it's it's like you know I know Jamie Foxx was like the Ray character, right? What was your first Ro besides Muhammad Ali? Bes uh so was I did a I did a movie I think uh uh SE second season of Fresh Prince uh called Six Degrees of Separation. Separation. So that was my first uh you know attempt at at dramatic acting. Um uh but on the on the Fresh Prince really the the father scene with Uncle Phil was like the first that first attempt at a real no hood niggaer want to watch that scene that make every don't you put that scene on the toughest dude in the world like oh how come he don't want me, man. It's like that's damn. I just did it to myself, you know. But yeah, that that that scene was like the first time um you know where where I was like looking to expand and be able to you know hold a dramatic scene and J you know everybody on that show was like stage-trained veterans, thespians. Yeah, Joe Marcel was from the Royal you know uh British Academy, you know, and you know Janet Hubert Whitten, you know, was a triple Broadway threat, you know, singing, dancing, acting like so everybody had must intimidating for you. It was it was really it it was really intimidating, but it was it was love. Everybody you know wanted.

Me to win in the beginning was a little bit, I think, cuz rappers were taking actors' jobs, so that wasn't a good look. That was good. Now English people are taking American jobs; they don't like that. Yeah, it's like they, they, you know, they, they, they are well-trained though, you know, and that's a, that's a thing, uh, especially with, with like, with uh, Black actors in America, because the opportunities aren't the same. We're not, we're, it's like we don't get, you know, stage training to prepare for, for acting. It's like it, it's, it's a really, it's, we do it from a much more, from the muscle, natural space, and our training is actually on the job, you know, whereas, you know, British actors, they can watch *The Wire*, learn it, and learn it like, yeah. I mean, they did, they, they listen, they doing the damn thing.

So, so we have a game on our shows called Quick Time with Slime, right? We take, we ask questions, and we take shots. If you don't want to take shots, you can have somebody from Philly who represents you come in place and take your shots, or maybe you have one or two shots. Yeah, you know, Dam, take a shot. You can take a shot, you can take a shot, Bak oriki, you want Japanese whiskey? You look like a Japanese whiskey. Go listen, don't let the West Philadelphia come on, just give me the B, give me the B. Okay, so you got to get her ready, you got to get her ready, Mr. Lee, cuz this first question is mine. Please, everybody back up, everybody back up. This not even on, this not even, it's not even on the list. All right, all right, it is on the list. This is Domin mama. I do not recommend that. Listen, I homemade, I do not recommend that. I know you a fly [ __ ], I got Japanese whiskey just in case you want, from the Alps of, of, of, of Tokyo. From the Alps of Tokyo. I don't know why I said, I don't know, I don't know. He said from the Alps of Tokyo. I was trying to make it, I was trying to make it sound, have me messed up from the, from the of Tokyo. All right, this is a question from, there you go, she from the FR Prince world of the universe, and if I get, now we got to remember, yeah, tell them the rules. No, you got to tell them the rules. You us suuck at telling these rules and World cuz y'all making this [ __ ] up as you go. Yeah, you know. So we got this out to Tokyo, right, and then what we do, what we do is we ask a Japanese question, you know, just making it up. We're going to give you two choices, you pick one. We're not drinking, but if you don't pick, we're drinking. Okay, so you can say both or neither, and we're drinking, both or neither, we're drinking. Okay. All right, so, but we want stories, this is all to bring up, bring up stories. All right, this is a lifelong FR friends question, see right there. No, that's, that's where you like that. I, I tweet, he already game, I instagramed this morning, you was practicing, you practicing ahead of the show, and I said, "Does anybody have questions for Will?" And this question popped up so much, so many times, and so fast because everyone knows about this game, it's called Quick Time Islam. You give us, or, no, no, no, it's called Quick Time Islam. So everyone knows, everyone knows this, so soon as we, I, I texted, I, I texted um, the picture that with me, you and Charlie Matt, and this is the first one, and this is a very important one. All right, so remember this or that, right? This or that, this or that, said neither, don't listen to him, stay right here, stay here. He speaks, nor speak Vivian one, cuz I want to say it politically correct, Vivian one or VI art, Viv one or ar Viv two. I was trying to say it, but I say, I'm doing, that's another one, bottle, bottle into the forest, so me drink it, DN sal, sal, sal, sal. How would, how many times in your life it has people ask you, does it, so it doesn't burn when you drink it? Oh, it burned the sh, I'm just trying to act hard in front of you like, You Will Smith [ __ ], that definitely burns. All right, it's good, that's tasty though. Oh yeah, I like that, the Alps of, very special place, my, the full set up, the full set up, he researched the Alps in, ja, how many times have you been asked that question? Oh my God, yeah, yeah, no, you know, it, it, it is um, it, it was one of the most um, like difficult times in my life, right, you know, um, cuz you don't understand, this a job or you have a relationship with, yeah, it's like, you know, what, on, on those kind of sets, you take on the relationships of your character. Wow, it's like your set parents, your, right, so it's like, it's real, that's real relationships, you go, you know, it's like, you know, your first relationship outside of hiop, yeah, and it's like that, that um, that, that loss, that, that's uh, I'm, I'm not a man that's prone to, to much regret, you know, cuz I believe things happen and they, you know, if you're, if you're happy today, you got to, you know, accept that it's because of the things that went right and wrong, you know, but that, that was uh, that was a, you know, Janet and I are magnificent uh, friends now, um, but that, that was a very, very, very hard time for me, and it was like um, I didn't see, um, when you said Janny, you talk about arm, we don't want to lose, like people going be like, I'm just talk about my P, these [ __ ] are crazy, they going to say it like that. First, yeah, the first amp of Janet, Janet Hubert, with, and she was, she um, she's magnificent, right, and you know, we all the same, my young arrogant eyes couldn't see that, you know, and it's like just the, the depth and the power that she, she brought to the show, um, I just, I was, I was missing it. I just, I could, you know, when I look back, it, it's like duh, it's really, you know, it was obvious what she was bringing, uh, but Daphne, you know, Maxwell Reed, you know, cultivated a beautiful uh, relationship, you know, with her, but it was a really, um, Janet is um, a special kind of um, you know, beautiful, talented, powerful, um, you know, she was, she was, was holding it down, and I, I, I certainly wasn't, wasn't seeing how powerful uh, and important she was to the show.

Right now, there's always these rumors that Michael Jackson is like a gangster on the side, right? Is Caron Banks gang banging on, I mean, just let us know. No, he, no, let me tell you, that is one of the most committed comedic actors I have ever met. Nobody commits like he has, yeah. When he, listen, when he goes, part one of the, you know, I really learned my comedic acting on the set of *The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air*, and the, the, the thing that Alfonso does is like, even when he doesn't like something, you know, he always gives it 100%. His thing was like, let the writers see if you, if you tank the joke and you don't give it all, they're going to think that it didn't work because you sabotaged it, and he really taught me a, you like, you, you know, with that Carlton dance and stuff, like when he goes, he goes, and it's like, you, you can feel uh, the power and the fun of his commitment. It's funny because he commits so hard to, to the joke. Yeah, he's a, he's a, he's a unique breed. Okay, I'm G, take another shot. You, you in or without anything? I got it, I got it, take, I got one more, I got, I question, you just going to take a shot? I got a question. Question is for me, shot is after the question. You ask this one, look, I like, know the rules, rules. I like, he knows the rules. Okay, let me just say, when in Philly, wi in Philly, yeah, you can take a shot before the question. Okay, hold on, hold on, you know what, I'm, I'm, I'm going to go to the next one. You know what, you're correct. Yeah, go to rapping or acting, rapping. Oh man, so here's the thing, I think I am, I'm more naturally an actor, really, right? I think that um, the what my mind most naturally um, falls into as far as entertainment, what I saw you reach for it, and then you pull back, you can go, you just want a drink. He said he was breaking it down so good, I was like, like the Philly came out of me. By the way, your sister has such a beautiful soul. Oh my God, that one right there's godam, come on, let's take a show man, shot, no, take another one man, not type of show, right? Go ahead, what you say? No, so I'm, I'm more naturally an actor, right, um, but my love is hip-hop, right, and it's like, you know, acting is, it, when it comes out of me, like I can, when I can go into a character, like I can transform my mind and my eyes, when I look at somebody and fall into a character, it's like really, it's natural for me, SC me man. [Laughter] Relax, he, what is he, a good guy, right, yo, and it's, it's like um, it's like moving, moving your energy and attention around in your, inside your body, right? So I can like fall into, you know, what did that [ __ ] say? M I A, hear you brother, say it again, that was him right there, my chest on fire right now, right? So that, like, and I've always been able to do that, to like see something and mimic a character, so I've always been able to uh, mimic it, and as I got older, I could like fall into the emotion of it, where it changes the look on your face, it changes your, it changes your eyes, it changes your body language, and just, you know, so I've always been able to do that naturally. You learned that with time or you, did you ever have to take classes? So I never, so I naturally could mimic, right? So I would look at how somebody walked, H, or I would listen to somebody's voice and I could, I could copy, and then as I got older, like copying is shallow, right? But then where does the emotion come from in being able to find the deeper and deeper place and layers, as I got to know myself better, uh, actors call it a toolbox, where you have a toolbox where, like, so for example, the fresh, SC fresh prin scene, you were talking about the father scene, I use the father scene to find sadness, so I'll use that for, you know, for *King Richard*, for example, there was the, the scene, Bas and Serena with the, Bas and Serena, yeah, for, for that, there was a scene um, where uh, at the, at the net with Venus before he lets her go and play, I watched *The Fresh Prince* scene before that, W, it's a prep, right? So I prep to like get, so you watch yourself to prep for yourself? Yes, that's, that's he practi, I respect that, you know, and then so that, but the music, there is nothing like being on stage and 50,000 people hear drums, please, you know, and it's like that moment when people realize you about to do the song they've been waiting for, it, that's the top of entertainment, that is the top, when they hear that first couple clicks of the record, that's the one they wanted to hear, there's nothing, there's nothing like that in entertainment, so that's, that's my, it's my, my love versus what I'm actually best at, right? But you hold up, but you, what's dope about you that I've noticed throughout your career, no matter how Hollywood you went, you were always hip-hop infus, you always with, *Men In Black*, when you br b um, bis B, and, and then I was watching that scene today, and it was like, yeah, didn't even talk, just beatbox, and, and I'm like, I remember actually being in the movie theater, and God bless me, white people, but um, they didn't know what the communication was, they were just like, they thought that that was alien talk, like, no, I wanted to be sto popcorn at the boxing [ __ ], you know what I'm saying, like, but that, that you always keep, how did you, how do you do that, like, how do you, what it is is the, it's the, it's the thing that's unique about what I bring, right? So it's like, you know, being, being born and raised in, in Philly and in Hip Hop, it's the, it's the thing that's uniquely me, right? You're at my core, so when I bring that, the, you know, 90% of the character can be comprehensible to, you know, General audiences, but then you add that little sauce that is the unique special. So for me, in terms of hipop, like you'll never see in any movie ever where they beatbox as an alien language, right? Like that's like, I love that, it's like only I can do that, right? You know, like I said, I was so mad in the movie theater people didn't get it, I was like, shut off, and, but even to call Biz to do it, right, to know that I want Biz to do that piece, you know, and it's like, rip, rip, God damn, I didn't even have to ask, look, you get playing the game, God. All right, all right, um, the first one, now hold on, let me, I got this, another one, this is also off the, off, off the menu, off the menu, off the menu, Jay-Z or Nas? Think about it, they got, both of them got your number. I know that's important, damn, that's a hard one too, that's a hard one too. Think about who's more Petty, do, I'm just, they both Petty, Jay, no, I have, I have more, more of, I have more of an interaction with, with uh, with Jay-Z, um, uh, but I think, I think that for, for, I'm, I'm going to go, I'm going to go Nas on that one. I'm going go Nas, I'm going go Nas. W, you took us here, they said, no, yeah, yeah, no, I mean, I have more of a relationship with, with, with Jay, um, but I, I think um, n Nas has made me study rapping more, like when I hear Nas, I'm like, damn, I'm way off the [ __ ] bar, like I got, I got, I gotta get to work, you know, so yeah, Nas, Nas pushes me into study more. Okay, not because you n from Queens, relx, yeah, exactly, there you go. I wasn't even thinking about that, so you have to answer, yeah, not a lifelong, but a very long time in Queens. The rumor is that Nas helped you with Jiggy with it, right? So we not Jiggy with, Itami, Miami, during the time that I was working on Jiggy, me, Nas did um, uh, just, just Cruisin', it was a record called Just Cruisin', right? So me and, me and Nas wrote uh, Just Cruisin' together, and I, let Nas listen to the, the album, and he was like, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, and I was like, so um, we, we didn't do any writing together other than the, the Just Cruisin' track, but you know, like an executive producer, yeah, he was, well, he was not really an executive producer, he was there, and I was like, yo, will you listen to this and tell me what you think, you know, and you know, he was honest, he was, he was really honest, and then we wrote one together, we wrote the Just Cruisin', and it was like a, a b-side of *Men In Black* or something, cuz he's never confirmed or denied, like people come up to him like, you, we know you, you Jiggy would it, yeah, he laugh, yeah, yeah, I don't know if he laughed, I don't know, he just never really answers, he's never answered. Yeah, no, we definitely, we definitely worked in the studio together, I think we might have messed around with two or three other songs, but Just Cruisin' is the only one that ever was released. Okay, yeah, so, so let me ask you, because listening to this album, first off, I was very, very impressed, um, one, I'm not impressed because of, of what you did, I'm impressed because I was trying to figure out, where's this hunger, right? Because all of us to make music, we have to have hunger, right? And then when you're not hungry no more, it's, it's harder to make music, so I'm sitting there, this is what I'm trying to tell you, um, I was, you know, first off, your people who sent the album, um, big up to Lex and them, this will never be bootlegged, right? Yeah, oh, by the way, it took my face scanner, yo, it took my, did you my face, it made me download, I downloaded like 30 years worth of [ __ ], I was just like, yo, I said, whoever your team is is so official, listen to me, they can send this [ __ ] to the bootlegging place in Kenya, and they still, okobi running miles, and they still can't bootleg this [ __ ], I'm just being honest. It took three of us in one car to go through the whole album, but here's what I'm saying, I kept listening, I kept say, I kept saying, where's he going to slack at, where's he going to say, you know what I'm, this, you know, movie star, I'm this guy that reached all the accolades, I'm so crazy now that I, I do white boy Sports, and you know what I'm saying, like, but I'm still Black, but I'm still Black, and then, but then you come and this album, and I'm trying to find, but I, I, I, I was so jealous because I couldn't find you not being hungry, I still felt that hunger, I still heard, fren, *Fresh Prince*, yeah, and I'm jealous of that because you know, if me and Capone right now go on and make a war report, I don't think we can, can have that same attitude, I'm not speaking for him, I'm speaking for myself, and so I'm, I was jealous because it took me a whole day to download it, so, so when I finally, cuz you know, I'm not that smart, but then I had two smart people, and it, it got them, so I was like, I was, it's not just me, but, but going through it, and then I went back through it, and I was just like, I can't see how you locked in, did you go to like Bali or somewhere, like how could you lock in and, and, and block the world out and focus on this, because it, one, it sounds like you super focused, yeah, for sure, two, it sounds like you still love the game, it, that, that's the problem, that's the part that I'm mad like, cuz I'm like, damn, how, how can he been through way, way more than me, obviously have more EOL, all, um, um, um, WIS and things like that, but how does he still have that hunger? That's, that's a, that's a question for me personally, not even for the world, like I felt that hunger in you, so what, what happened? I light of blunt, I even got a blunt, that's, that's how good that question was, my, okay, continue, continue. No, what happened, what happened with me, man, is, you know, in the, in the last couple of years, like I really just shut it down, you know, and you know, really, um, after the Oscars, I just shut it down, and I did a real deep dive, like I looked at, I looked at myself as honestly as I could, um, and I looked at all of the parts of myself that um, I always thought of as not for public consumption, right? So there was a Will Smith, and there was an, and an image, and there was an, an, an identity of Will Smith, but that was only my good qualities, it was only the best of me. You saying Will Smith to the public or like an Instagram profile? Yes, right, yes. The Will Smith to the public was only the best of me. Will Smith wasn't allowed to be that beautiful post, the beautiful post that you, you posted, and you posted what you were on the island, and then you showed that it was blue behind you, so you saying like something like that, up, that, that you know, that, that was a fun way to do it, but the, the idea that um, you never saw me not smiling, right, right, right, right? But you could probably imagine there was some times when I wouldn't be smiling, it's just that wasn't for public consumption, you know, so you know, there was, there was, it was just the best qualities of me, so then, you know, I was forced into a situation where I had to be honest that I don't just have good qualities, MH, I have some things that I have pushed down.

Have you know fear? I have confusion. I have anger. I have sadness. Oh, you're human. Yeah. Oh yeah. You know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know that that that's that's probably the most beautifullest thing. And I know you spoke about it, but I won't. But what I'm saying is the most beautiful thing about you is you own your humanness. And and and and and and you know I'm going be honest, I'm bouncing around, but I'm I'm I always related to the 5% Nation, or like the Muslims, a little bit more than the preachers, because the preachers show me that they didn't have mistakes. But when I seen, you know, the 5%, I seen the foi handing out the newspaper. I seen that brother messing up before. So so it made me relate to him more. So that's that's what, you know, what I'm saying. So that's what I I feel like with you.

But my thing is you've never lost a step. And and if you did, I guess you was just admitting that, but you didn't show it to the world. How how how can you do that? So for me, now now this about this time, this phase of, you know, know my career and really this phase of my life is as I looked into myself in that way and I like really confronted those parts of myself that the my Humanity, not the the just the straight Superman winning all the time, the happy happy Superman winner. Right, when I started confronting those other parts of myself, um, something really magical happened. Right as I like the the best way I can describe it is like imagine like, you know, I pushed my anger down and I held it, and then it popped, and then I was like, okay, I'm not going to pretend like you're not there. Like, let's talk. Right? And I really like confronted it, and then it's almost like there was a hole under my anger that my anger was plugging, but inside the hole was great [ __ ] it was great creativity and great power and like new ideas. And it was like by not accepting that part of myself, I was cutting off the good that it could offer me. You, it's like it's like there's there's no bad qualities, there's no bad qualities in you. There are things that are neglected that will be a superpower if you befriend your anger, if you befriend your sadness, not try to get rid of it, befriend it, be befriend the fact that you're scared. Like, be okay that you're scared, you still got to do this [ __ ] right, but don't pretend like you're not scared. Like be scared, but still do it. Like when you when you befriend those energies versus like fighting them, they become superpowers, they become your army. So like you have this Army of energies, and that's the place where I am right now. Like the the good qualities that I thought were the strongest Will Smith, that's not it. It's like now those those qualities are backed up by all of these other energies that are like having been cleansed, like not you don't want them to drunk drive through your life, but what now they've been like cleansed and now they're giving me gifts, they're giving me poetry, they're giving me power, they're giving me patience, they're giving me certainty. You know.

So to me that's a long way to answer the question. Um, the hunger comes from like I got cheat codes. Right? I got cheat codes. I want to like I want to share cheat my cheat codes. I want to he yeah, I want to cheat. I'm not we're all like all I'm not going lie to you, I never thought I needed therapy and to just like the way you broke I want you need to be a therapist like or like sell somebody your therapy cuz I was I was so in like how much oh I was to be like you know how click it when it's over I'm like yo no that was so that was so dope man that's so dope. Um, and I know this is a cliche question and I'm going get back to Quick time of Slam, but did you ever think that you would make it this far?

Um, man, i' I've been beyond my dreams for like 20 years. I've been beyond anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you know, now it's like I'm I'm in unknown territory right now. I have no idea where this is going. I have no idea, you know, what's happening. But you know, if you think of it as a wave, right, I know I can serve, right? So I'm like, you know, life bring it. Um, black is can serve tell them. Right, yeah, right. That's right, right. Like I don't know, like things are you so when I when I was saying cheat codes, right, I need cheat code. So one of the first things there's a there's a song on the album called You Can Make It. You Can Make It. It's a m right. So um one of the cheat codes around You Can Make It, right. So as I as I sit in this room right now, right. Um, You So bunch of black men, you know, and you know we would never admit we're having a hard time, right? But you don't have to tell me, I know you are. I know you are. And I can be here and and I can make it harder for you, or I can be here to have you be stronger when I leave, right? But what I used to think that, you know, you know, I got to defend myself. I what I I don't have to defend myself from you. We both having an equal hard time. If I don't aggress upon you, you're not going to, right? It's like if you if you know that I know that you're having a hard time and that I don't want to be any part of why it's more difficult for y'all, M right. And it's like like that's a cheat code. Like that's a real cheat code. People see it in your eyes when you know they're having a hard time and you don't want to make it harder. They also see when you don't give a [ __ ] if they see you don't give a [ __ ] not a part of them that don't give a [ __ ], right? Yeah. So it's like to me it's like part of part of that cheat code of entering rooms and Inter interacting with people, it's like I don't know what it is, but I know every single person in here is struggling all right with something with something, right? And it's different levels. You know, some some you know somebody's going through a breakup, and you know somebody you know lost some money that they really needed, somebody that got a love one that just died, you know somebody's family is fighting over something, you know we're alling everybody's lifing, right? So it's a cheat code to don't get lost on the person in front of you, even if they're aggressing, they're aggressing because life is [ __ ] them, it's not you, life is hurting them, and they even May perceive that you're aggressing just how you walk, it don't even have to be you, they could they're perceiving that you're aggressing and they're prepared to hurt you. Right, right. But it's like the the cheat Cod is just know that don't even don't even go into that energy space with them, you know. And you know for me like that song You Can Make It, it was like that was part of the discovery, like you know, don't don't get distracted from the fact of every step you take is affecting people's lives as you move, right? So that was but part of the idea of you you can make it, it's like I'm keeping in my mind when I'm looking at people, I'm saying you can make it, I don't know what it is brother, but I know you got it, you got it, you know. And it's like holding that energy is a real cheat code, cuz then people want to help you when they feel like you're open to want to help them, they want to help you, but it takes vulnerability to open that. Men don't we we don't do that right with each other, right? So for me when I come downstairs Brothers, It's welcome to Philly. Yes, like like I like I want you to enjoy it and have fun with you in in Philly, you know. And it's like I want you to feel safe and have a good time. I got cheese steaks for you. That's right. I right right right, you know. And it's like that energy is an energy of abundance. You like you you you build things, you make friends, you build relationships, you you create a safe space around you when you start from that mindset that the person is going through something, right? It's it's like you're trying to reverse the idea of hurt people hurt. Hurt. Yes, absolutely. Trying to reverse that. Absolutely. You know.

But um I want to say something because the roll out that um your family um the people that work with you um I've seen you on million dollars worth of Gams. We've seen you on what's the guy name um that tells everybody to stop smoking in his um Airbnb playy playy Playboy, and you did drink chance. And when you looking at that, you you sitting back saying damn your team knows what they doing. They're shipping with the time. A lot of people would have went to you know the the traditional radio station, which you have you dropping an album, so obviously you you want the radio displays, but right now black young unscripted media is running the world. Absolutely. The fact that your team knew that, like I watched it and I'm sitting back and I'm like whoever's on your team, they know exactly what they doing. So here's my question, you knowing that now that black young media is running the thing, where is Overbrook's podcast company? Where is Over Brooks production company for these young directors, for the young next Will Smith, for the young next Kevin Hart that's here eating is was like me and you know what I'm saying eting CH because I know you bought cheese steaks and trust me I'm going be judg M toomie homie came over and said I forgot to cheese I said I'm judging you off top off top I'm here for Philly, but um but but that's you know it's something that um I learned and I had to learn going through it because I had to go through it. Nas, who we spoke about earlier, Nas could have had Capone Nora sign, he could have had Mob Deep sign, he could have had AZ sign, he could have had Foxy Brown sign, but he chose to kind of be our friends, right? When we wanted we might have wanted our leader at that time. So if you look at Nas and and that's my brother, you know what I'm saying, him before I got here, but then you look at Jay, Jay didn't really care about um him being your leader or not, he wanted to make good business. So if you look at that, but then if you look at them both, that's what you are like, you know what I'm saying, like you're a person who has the movies, you're a person who has the music, and then and obviously podcast is this new thing and I'm sitting back like why isn't Over Brook, you know, that version of our heart, yeah, you know how our heart has all these things and you got you got Netflix and God bless us, right? We made Netflix and chill, that was a dude that was bored during Co and said Netflix and chill and the whole [ __ ] this our people, when is our people who are at that top going to invest into people, whether it's that that bottom or whatever. And I'm not just saying Overbook, it's just like I kind of feel like black folks or hip-hop folks should invest in hip-hop now. So here so was that a good question first? That was a you felt good about I'm sorry I'm sorry I like know it was like it was sharp, it was it it was a little bit but I want you to answer the question. We need Blacks to to invest in Blacks. Che, yes. Cheers. Cheers. Yes, that won't hit me. They laughing at um no. So all right, so F first of all, um it's it's always been the case, right, right, that um uh my manager Miguel, he's he's still in here, he would he would he would always say um what's Urban is Suburban, right, right. So so our community has always LED, right? So uh LED you said LED always LED, right? So it was you know Brands, you know, before Run DMC were always looking at what was happening Smith. Yes, absolutely. Always looking at what happened in the inner city, and then once like Run DMC really they they broke the the barrier, they didn't have a deal with Adidas, they were wearing Adidas before they had a deal with Adidas, and then Adidas went to the concert and saw that. Yes. And then they were like, oh, got it, right? So Adidas did even know their sales were spiking because Run DMC was wearing Adidas, right? So that the idea of the the the inner cities and and urban communities leading in in you know fashion and branding as we've always been that. So in in terms of you know the the question of why we don't do that, so we do do it, it's it's bandwidth is an issue, right, right. Do so much so you know I know Kevin Hart's company, you know, by the way, heartbeat Over Brook, I pick y'all up man, doing great Philly Phil, I big yall up definitely, you know. But when you get to 15 projects, you're at your whole company's bandwidth, right? But there's 4,000 you know people who deserve uh a look, right? But it's like you know you got one executive that's working 10 projects that they believe in that one is going to go, right, right. So you look at a company after four years and it's like you know. So for us with um our company with like belir okay, right. So we got you black staff and you know black and brown writing and staff and all of that, but it takes everything our TV division has to keep that show up and relevant and going, and then you just don't have the bandwidth to have a second one going. It's like all hands on deck to make show make sure the show wins, cuz when you get the shot you have to win too MH, right? You know. So you know we have that, we set it up and then you know things happen. So you you start building it out, right? So you'll start building out your divisions and you get going and then there's a strike. Oh yeah, the wrer strike. Now there's a writer strike and you have to like you can't survive cuz you can't work and you can't hold 100% staff, so you got to scale down to 20% staff until the strike is over. Now you lose all of these great people, you lose all of these great projects, and now you're starting up all over again, right? So there there are business considerations like um Tyler Perry has like the most like stable Foundation of being able to make things and turn them out, but you know it's bandwidth. Also Tyler's writing and directing you know all of the stuff too, right? So it's really it is the the idea is simple to say, but when you look at Staffing the the reality of it is if you have a staff of 40, you could get to bandwidth on a staff of 40 people with two projects, you could be like you get two big things going and what it takes to keep it going, it's like it's really hard. Then what happens is then you have to let other people be in charge, right? So when I'm looking over a project like I'm I'm the taste, right? So you know I have other people that are really good taste, but as you get broader you lose the taste, and then you start making things that aren't good, and that's not helpful either, you know. So it's a it is a it is a it is a complex uh it's a complex problem and more complex in today's media landscape where everything is 24 everything turning over so fast. Be on top of it 24/7. Yeah. 10 years ago you could take a big BET right and be pretty sure you're going to make it. It's limited box office, limited TV or whatever, right? You know. So it is you know it is it is difficult and people now are thinking of it as disposable, right, right. Movies disposable. Well, entertainment in general, content is disposable. Seems free to everybody, so you can't even like you know make a $2 million bet on something because people might decide that that's not exactly. Yeah, it's a it is a it is a difficult issue, and I'm I'm in a lot of those rooms. It is not cuz people are TR make it. It is not because people are not trying. So they always say that um being the first person, it's it's it's beautiful, but you know you get you get looked you get frowned upon, right? I'm using that lightly again. Um, you were the first person to win a Grammy, first rapper, first rapper to ever win a Grammy, the boycott, right? Uhuh. We boycotted and uh oh you boycotted and won and won. Yeah, you still acceped your [ __ ]. That's ganger, right? We didn't accept. Take a shot, take a shot there you go. Bo yeah. Way just look at my eyes, we're making a statue for you. We making a statue. Okay, so describe us this year, but you were you guys solely boycotting on your own or it felt like it was a hip-hop boycott? It was a hip-hop boycott. So um so what happened the so it was the first year ever that hip-hop got hip-hop got acknowledged by the Grammy um so they acknowledged that they had the category, but they said they weren't going to televise the the hip-hop category, they weren't going to televise it. So we were like, well, wait, we sold more records than everybody, like why is that? Why is our stuff not being televised? Um so uh Russell Simmons and Leor Cohen and uh MTV organized a boycott. Okay. And you're not on Def Jam? I'm not on Def Jam. R Rush's management. Rush man. Okay, makes sense. Okay, I just wanted to make it sense. I'm getting hyped. I'm sorry. Sorry. So they organize a boycott. They said nobody we're nobody's going. So MTV has a counter show that's going to boycott the Grammys. So we go and you know two days before the Grammys we find out that Kumo D has agreed to appear. Oh damn. With the big glasses and all that. Yeah. Okay. All right, cool. Yeah. So K mod D he uh and it's so crazy cuz it seems it seems so little and silly now, but it was like the biggest thing in the world. Everyone look at Kumo D is the betrayer. Yeah, like Kumo D went and we me and Mo were like great friends, we still are, but it was like it was like huge that he crossed the line and he went and did an intro. Wow. Grammy. Oh wow. Right. So le le he did the whole man. Kumo D is a legend. He's known for he was just it was just it's so funny cuz it was like the biggest like our lives depended on this and it was like the the worst [ __ ] that ever happened. Uh me and Mo laugh about this now um but so we're there and it's us and Salt-N-Pepa and LL and Stetsasonic and All. So it's like 50 rappers and we're standing we're watching and you know they're doing the show and then they they do the earlier tonight awards were given in the rap category and we're standing with all the rappers and me and Jeff standing we looking at the TV and we were nominated against um it was um op um it was uh so was it still a rap in R&B? The way no it was just rap. It was the first time that it was just rap. So it was like LL, Salt-N-Pepa, um uh else was nominated uh Super Sonic. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah. JJ, Fat Boys, three four. I missing the I missing the uh fifth one huh. Run-DMC was in there. All right. So it was you so everybody was nominated. So we're standing there and we're watching the TV and they say and earlier this afternoon DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince were awarded best rap and we're standing there with everybody. I was like like to the boycott I was like cuz you didn't know you were going to win. I was like I didn't know we were going you I didn't know to win. I was like man me and went in the other room and it was like yo the first Grammy ever give it to a rapper and it was like we never we never really you know had the chance to fully celebrate, but it it was really giant hearing that we won the the first [Applause] ever. Now hip-hop could be um you know critical until they actually make that that position right, like it's like it's like a

Person seeing the first person doing the alley-oop, they're like, "Man, that [ __ ] look crazy!" And then you learn how to do the AL, this is legit, you know what I'm saying? So after they're winning the Grammys, when did it become cool to actually win a Grammy? Yeah, because I'm sure you got chastised, got criticized.

Yeah, for sure. No, and it was like, you know, "Well, they only won 'cause white people like their music." But, cool, they won 'cause it's—they won 'cause it's soft, you know? That's cool. It was their—their music was palatable for other audiences. Um, and that critique is still going on to this day when it comes to the category, for sure, you know. Um, you know, I think I think it was probably like, like three—three Grammys later where it was like cool to—to win the Grammy. It was like that—that next year still wasn't cool, but they televised it, so it was like good that they televised it; they were respecting the genre. Um, but it—it was, um, yeah, definitely like three years later that it was like a real prestige thing to—to win a Grammy. Yeah, 'cause now everybody's bragging about it, but back then they were like, "I pissed on a Grammy."

Yeah, yeah. I think H actually did piss, or Kanye, one of them did that [ __ ]. They said they did. No, it's a—it—it's an—it's an honor anytime anybody will say, "We appreciate what you do." I think a lot—there's a lot of silliness that goes into that. It's not about the award; it's just work you know that you've put into—yeah, somebody is saying, "Hey, I appreciate what you do," and you're—what your—how your gifts are being um received by humanity is a—that is—that's a real thing.

Is there any aspirations to be—to have an EGOT, to all of them?

Uh, you're close. You're close. You know, I'm—I'm—I'm passed—um, I'm pasted awards in—in my mindset. Um, you know, there's a—there's a thing I think that everybody—I wish that everybody—body could have everything they dream—right—to realize that that's not it.

Right, right. You know, um, I've said before, like there's a—there—people talk about rock bottom, that when you hit rock bottom is when you'll make a change.

Talk about drugs.

Yeah, like drugs. People say drugs in rock bottom in life.

Rock bottom in life.

Yeah, but yeah, it is like people say it in—in, you know, in AA, talking about rock bottom, but there's a corresponding place that I call um Cliff top, right? Like you could be too high where you get so high that you realize um literally none of this stuff can make you happy.

Right.

Right. After you—you get—you can get to the end of the material world, you get to the end of money, you get to the end of sex, you know, you get to the end of fame, you get—you—you have so much and you get—and then you—you like go off of a cliff into the same kind of abyss that you'd be scared of slipping into at rock bottom, right? Where life loses all of its uh ability to sustain and please you, and then the only thing that's left—the same thing at rock bottom—the only thing that's left at Cliff top is you have to—you have to find what you're actually looking for, and what—what you're actually looking for is you—you're running around, right? When you—when you like a woman and you like being with a woman, it's because you like how you feel, right? You like what's happening inside of you. When you have money, it's like, yeah, it's cool to buy things, but it's not the money—you like how you feel inside; it's unleashing feeling inside. And at rock bottom and at Cliff top, what you have to learn how to do is generate that feeling without anything external. You want to—you have to learn to like—like you so much that you like being alive so much that you—you bring positive energy that's not generated by stuff, right? 'Cause stuff is coming and going—like people are coming and going—everything you have and everybody you love is going to rise and fall in your life. The place that we have to find is a spiritual place where we are good with us—we trust us—I trust myself, I trust God, and I trust life—that whatever happens, I'm going to make happy out of it. I don't need specific things to happen. And I think also the important thing is we forget that that journey is really—the—the middle part is—is really the best part of—

Yes, exactly.

It's like being able to be right here, right now, with whatever arises and not need a specific thing to happen, right? And it's like, you know, part of the beauty of these—these moments for me and these interactions for me is like I don't need a specific thing to happen with us now. I'm open, and I'm excited—like what's going to evolve from this moment? And as soon as I have a spe—specific thing that I want to happen—that I want from you now—it—it—it throws off the—the energy of our experience, you know? So I'm just learning to accept life as it comes—just relax, you know. Some shit's going to come that you don't like; some shit's gonna come that you do like, and it's like I'm—I'm trying to just cultivate a mind that is um able to accept and add love to any circumstance that arises.

A lot of letting go—a lot of—a lot of letting go. I ain't gonna lie. You set up that shot. It's not even the wrong—I got to do—watch—hold—let me—let me join you properly. Cheers. So look at me—look at me right here. So I want to speak about—no quick time with Slime—we just—you just go back—list—listen. I want to say something about Philadelphia. Don't care nothing about the rules—like he—like the rules—the rules is for the rest of us—he makes rules for the rest of us, but he do what he—Japan. But Philly has made such a dramatic mark in hip-hop since after you—like uh prior to you, we had Schoolly D first.

Yeah.

Um, then we had you, and like you said, like so many people—there's a lot of firsts from Philly, and hip-hop is going way back.

Yeah.

But what I'm saying is from him—but so many people didn't understand because you were making clean rap, right? Yeah, for lack of a better term, right? You were making clean rap. A lot of people didn't know what Russ—Philadelphia was. A lot of people didn't know what Philadelphia was. A lot of people didn't know that Philadelphia—you're going to get killed out there—you're going to get a cheesecake and you're going to get shot.

Serious.

You're going to get shot, and—and—and—and they might stay there too—like it's like—so a lot of people didn't know that because New York was so much of—but now Philly has kind of like took its own mark—like—like I mean through hip-hop—through—through so many different things—uh, through comedy—you, Kev. Um, how did—how did you—did you see that Philly would be prominent like that? Because it's damn near next to New York at this point. You know what's interest—like Philly was all I knew, right? So to—to—to me, the—the hip-hop culture and the—the creative culture in Philly, and even before that when I—you know, when I was growing up, Joe Frazier was Philly, right?

Historic city.

Yeah, you know, so it—it, you know, there—there has been a long history—uh, you know, Wilt Chamberlain went to the high school—he [ __ ] every bit—I mean, that's—think that's where he was going with—he's famous for other things—points—he was shooting good—he was sh—he was shooting—he was shooting literally a couple of times, you know. But so, you know, there's a rich history—there's a rich—rich history of talent and successful people—Julius Irving, you know—when I was growing up. So you know, for me, it was always—I knew that I was going to do my best to be a part of a rich history. I didn't feel like I was starting anything, right? So I felt like I was being—you know, gambling—huff—and you know, I felt like I was being a part of a history—contributing—contributing to something that was already, you know, alive and well.

MH, listening to this album, I felt like there—you called everyone, and everyone said yes.

Mhm.

But I'm wondering if I'm wrong—was there anybody that you called for this album and they were like, "I'm busy," or "I'm in Costa Rica"?

No, you know, um—um, yeah, no, there—there were—there were a couple people um who—who weren't sure about working with me, really.

Yeah.

There were—yeah, there were—there were definitely—there were definitely a couple people who—they thought you was in hot water.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So they—they—they was like, "Yeah, we—we'll wait for the second round—we'll—we'll wait for the second round."

Yeah, the—the boiling eggs—bacon.

Yeah, yeah. We'll see. But it—it was—actually, that—that was new for me, too—that I got—that was real humbling. I'm used—I was used to when—when Big Willie call—it was—they—that honest to you.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, real—like I was like—but were they being that honest to you about it?

No, no—people weren't being honest, you know? They weren't being honest, but I knew—I knew that's what it was, right? I knew that's what it was. Please—please do not forget, all right? But the other day, Nelly called me—Nelly called me and was like, "Yo, um, can you—can you meet me at Club 11?" And I was like, "Yeah, of course." And he—how you said it—he knew I was lying, 'cause I'm too old—I'm married—I don't want to do none of this, but I don't want to tell him no, so I was like—I was like, "Yeah, okay." And then—and then n—he—he—he—he knew it—he heard it—he freezes—he's like, "Damn [ __ ], you could just say—" I was like, "Y—I'm older now—I have a grandson—"

I have a grandson.

You want to shout out my grandson?

Yeah, shout your—name—congratulations.

Yeah.

So I don't go out—so—so I don't go—said—so I don't go out.

No.

But I feel different now.

Yeah.

Are you different?

Yeah. No, I'm—tell—because you're different because how people treated—for the incident that happened.

No, you know, it's uh—you can see how these [ __ ] are—no, no—I—I—I don't have—so first of all, I didn't look at anything that anybody said, right? So like I literally shut it down. I was like, "I don't want to know nothing that nobody said."

Turn your notifications off.

Yeah, to all—I might have had five months where I didn't even look at, you know, Instagram or nothing like that. I was like, "Yeah, we all need to do that [ __ ]." I'm addicted.

Yeah, you know. So it's like, you know, I know there—there's, you know, like people that went hard, right? But I literally don't know—I don't know who went—matter what they—and me—me and Charlie was out the—the—the other night—Charlie—M—me and Charlie. Yeah, and somebody—somebody walked in that had—had gone hard, and I was like, "Hey, like—no—no—n—no—no—don't say that—like—nope—not that one—not that one," right? You—I—I ain't gonna say nobody's name—say nobody's name—we figure it out—they know—right now—like, "No, we not speaking to him—we not speaking to him," right? You know? But for—for me, it's like I just—I—I knew it would poison in my heart, right? And I was like, "I just don't want that, man. I just don't want to know what none of them [ __ ] said." So when I see him—"Hey, man"—that Charlie can just grab my hand—me—I love that—good man—I love that, by the way. But—but that—that was a—all right, now I'm going to give you one of—M—I did an interview—our second interview with this brother—our first interview was so beautiful—I mean, a second interview was beautiful—it had parts in there that—oh, I already know—

Oh, yeah.

And I remember we dropping an interview—sorry for anybody who's uncomfortable, but you know—Puff Daddy called me and said, "Man, you sure you want to drop this?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm artistic—I'm standing by my artistic—artistic tree—I'm standing by my Japanese alpan—artistic stre—and I make it up as I—"

Yo, well, boy, did I regret that.

And he did not say, "I told you so"?

Did he?

No, he did—never told me—"I told—" I got to give credit for that—he never told—but he told me—and we dropped this Kanye interview—he's like—not saying names—the name—I said I wasn't going to say the name—I'm said—"No, no—you just didn't say the name"—um, the views expressed by Nori and EFN are not necessarily the views of Will Smith Entertainment. Please know that what I'm saying—C—itching—and it surprised me with the people that called me—the people that called me wasn't the—the—the quintessential people I thought that were called—like Shaq called me—Forell called me—and it was just—for me, it was just like, "I made a mistake"—and what I say about—made a mistake—I never said nothing.

Yep.

Yep.

But uh—I did not say—

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah—got it. So now I understand that my—that—that this is my responsibility—if a person is on my platform, regardless of what—if Will—Will Smith gets on my platform and says—"Oh—not—let's say—mon—we get money with them—we get money with them—don't talk about—M—or—let's say—black—black—black—no—excuse me—brown—brown—little—little squares"—yeah—is a piece of [ __ ]—yeah—brown little squares—not only as mad at you but they're mad at me—they—they thought that I edited it—they thought that—that I um went over it—and they thought that I deliberately said—I want to do this—when it's really just your views—so my—my—my question is—saying that was one of my—um—in front of the industry—most downest moments—Y—and the people who called me was people that I did not—in one of your downest moments—whichever one it is—who was the person who called you—who—you—you didn't think—

Floyd Mayweather.

Floyd—Floyd—I love Floyd.

Yeah, yeah—Floyd called me every day for a month after the—wow—two—three—yeah—no—that's—yeah, you know—I love that—but let me—I want to back up on this a little bit because that's—you touched on a good point. Um, all right, so you know—you—you get this interview, and you have it—you put it out—here's the cheat code—yeah—um, so people said to me—"Will, you sure you wanted to do Drink Champs—really? Do you want—you want to like this—real—you're saying for real?"

I'm saying for real.

Like, "Will, are you sure you want to put yourself [ __ ] in that position?"

Right position.

Right. Yeah. Right. We don't even know, right? So—um, it's like—"Well, what you going—you going to take drinks, right? And then who knows what the [ __ ] you might say," right?

Right.

And they were like, "You know, Nore is good at getting you to say some [ __ ] you might not—" He might have you in the—

Japanese—good.

I'm good, right? So—so I said—"Oh, 'cause I love y'all," right? So I sat on—I sat on it for a minute. That's my son—no—that's my first time I met you.

Yeah, yeah. We met you at the Bright—

No, no, no—that's Nickelodeon—Nickon—Niod—continue.

Right.

So—so—but I really had to sit with that, right? So the cheat code is what's your intention, right? So when you're in those situations, it's like—"What is your intention? What was your intention—putting in that moment—in that moment—what's your intention—putting out the interview," right? So for me, when you're ten toes down in your intention, right? So my intention of being here with y'all is to support any good you trying to put in the world.

Goddamn, we want to show you our attention, 'cause our attention is about giving people their flowers—they smell them—they thought—where they—[Music] [Applause]—tell—and Will—let me just tell you something—every rapper in this world that ever tried to act—that ever wanted to go into another field—we all owe you—we all owe you—we all have to tip our hats off to you—we got to rub our Beijing in—we got to do whatever—speak for yourself—obviously—I'm—obviously not doing it—we know—but every rapper who has ventured out, you know—um, you know, I mean, even—did you know uh—what do we call it—uh—uh—uh, you know, other business [ __ ]—because prior to you—all rappers did was rap.

Mhm.

And then when they didn't have them—pensions—and them W-9s and the 401Ks, then they started to complain, but you gave the blueprint—you said, "You know what? I could rap—I could dominate rap—and I could dominate another field—ably—and then I could come back—and I could dominate another field—and I could keep dominating another field—I can keep going—I can get so bored—I could do [ __ ] that y'all don't even like it—and guess what—" And then you had the TikTok phenomenon—I'll be following you on TikTok—I don't know what the [ __ ] you be doing—I like—I'm like—"[ __ ] it—Will Smith do it—I'm got to do it"—like it's just like—so we want you to know like how important—how much uh—you—you chip that other world—and right now we probably don't understand because that other world has just been chipped.

Yeah, for sure.

That's pioneering—that means—that's what pioneering—so that's why I said earlier, I was like, "Yo—yo, you know—you was the first person to run to—Grammy"—I'm sure I was the first person to do—re—throne—people laughed at me—Y—I almost had to wear a pamper because I felt like everyone was [ __ ] on me, but guess what—you can't turn on the radio without—but you be trying to be Spanish, too—I be—I be watching you—we not calling you "poyo"—I'm just letting you know—like you be having Spanish girl—list—it's more—I see—the Latino community—we—we've been contemplating on how we kicking you out—well, we like this [ __ ]—want to be called "poyo" and [ __ ]—we—we draw the line, man—you had the blue Arya girl—and—the blue har—something—it—a—it—it—it—it's nothing like—it's—it's nothing like a—a Friday night in Colombia—you know what I'm telling you—it's a lot of places—it's a lot of places—what the [ __ ] are you doing—the whole side of the—[Applause]—room—yeah—related to—wh—dude—it's beautiful though—I've—like—I've always—I've always loved, you know, Latin music and—and Latin food and—like the—the, you know, the fire of Latin women and dance and all that—it's all connected, too—all of our Latin music comes from Africa as well.

Yes, absolutely.

I'm just trying to audition for Bad Boy—five—that's all—you—I'm—boy—W—get yo—will—let me just tell you something, man—we were so excited—I worked out—for about—you—you—you been—you doing the—you know—doing the Rocky Steps tomorrow.

Yeah—you—I heard—I could have—I could have hit your team—your team was so official—I was like, you know—"I—I couldn't bother them—CU"—they like—everybody was off—and they—I couldn't download the album—asked him about seventeen times about the album—then everything—everything.

Yeah.

It was so official—but we doing Rocky Steps tomorrow, 'cause that's my dream—uh, to run the Rocky Steps. So now it's going to be mostly Instagram—meaning I'm going to act like I'm running very fast.

Yes—got it.

And then I'm going to go up the hill, and then I'm going to be like—"Yo—yo—you—"

Yeah, yeah, yeah—you do that.

Yeah, yeah—know what I'm saying? Get that—is that how you train for Ali?

Yeah.

Oh, no—Ali was—Fu—you with that.

Yeah—no, no, no—that was a good—you keep—you know—my mouth was—[Applause]—open—but you TR—with Le—real trainers, right?

Yeah—no, it was real.

Okay, 'cause I—I was in—no—I was in—

The I was doing boxing classes in South Beach. Yes, right. And you walked in. Actually, I don't know if it—no, the trainer was still working at that at that gym. He walked in, so was you. Method acted Ali? Yeah, we did a we did a real fight camp. So um, it was it was, you know, real fighters—uh, Michael B, uh, Charles Schuer, James Tony, and you know, it was they wanted me to train and to, you know, have a sense of the experience of what it was like to train for a real fight. So we went real real. And Michael Michael Bent was like, you know, mentoring me, and James Tony was the one that I don't work with no [ __ ] actors. So James Tony would hit me for real. James Tony would hit me for real. Yeah. And I was like, hey, you a this—I'm going give you the ACT. He would scream. He would scream, "Bite your mouthpiece" when he was throwing a punch. He would say, "Bite your mouthpiece, Bo!" I'm thinking, you playing? No, James—yeah, James T was like, "James, seriously? Come on, man. Come on. I got to—I don't work with no [ __ ] actors. We fighters in here. You know, bite your mouth—" [Laughter] By if if Jake Paul challenged you to a fight, would you take it? Man, I'm too old for that. Yeah, good. That that joke is strong. He is. We you know you know he may he made—he's not working his way to being a professional fighter, right? But you know, he was like he was a champion wrestler before he started that.

Yeah, yeah. No, he's he's he's he's real, you know, not on the professional level yet, but you know, as a as a fight, he can fight for real. Yeah. I'm be—know people like, now you can—he has an affinity for the—I'm be honest with you—not since my father's older friends—M—I've heard somebody use the word "Joker." "Joker." Every time you use it, I cringe. Like, no, bring it all back, man. Bring those old-school joints back. Know that East Coast when a when the East Coast [ __ ] say, man, that joker—that's a noun. It's a person, place, or a thing. And I'm looking at—and now you use it in your rhymes, too. Every time you use it, I said, "D"—that's that's the only critique I had on—so "Joker," "Joker"—is that's just your generation—not say [ __ ] though—but let me just say something. "Joker," you know, we got a lot cooler [ __ ]. Yeah, we got CL, we got so much cool [ __ ], but you stepped on—give me something—give me something. So but "Joker," like we say "joker," this "Joker" all the time. Oh, that joker must be out of his mind. Like that y y y y y y, you know me—that Jo—that you from Philly—that that cuz Jer just make me say, "Damn, this grandfather [ __ ] right here." Yeah, I'm here. Now you're grandfather, bro. That's what I'm saying. It makes me accept—it makes me accept—I don't want to accept it—accept it, man. I use be—I use wean—to you use rewind. Oh, no, no. Mine is just like this all the time. Got a little bit in there. Well, come on, stop. I put a little bit [Laughter] I don't—we know, man. Yo, my [ __ ] would probably look like that. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm I'm on the verge—if you had one thing to do all over in this industry and that's anything, what would you do? One thing to do all over again? Um, you know, it it it's it's funny like once you're once you're past things, right, there are very few, you know, there's a song on an album called "Beautiful Scars." I got it in my notes, right. So what the the idea is you you don't like [ __ ] while you're going through it, right? But once you learn the lesson, you never want to give it back, right? It's like you suffered it, you survived, you took a lesson from it. Now it's like the things that you have suffered are in your eyes when you talk to your son, right? If you ain't been there, you can't help him, right? So to me, it's like, you know, I wouldn't—you know, when I look back, there's like there's not things—I mean, of course, there's things I, you know, I think about, but I wouldn't I wouldn't from this side of it, I would never give them scars back, cuz you looking at it like whatever you've been through is the reason why you're here now, man. That you are—it makes you who you are, right? It's like you you're you can't be more valuable than your suffering. And that's a real—that's a hard idea you learn in this world by getting smashed. That's that's Howes learn. Shout to you. Yeah, smash. But like most stuff been sounding like a shot to you. I'm just being honest. I just being—can we really—I'm sorry, cuz you so deep, but I really want to open up—Will Smith therapy? Will Smith? No, no, no. I'll be a therapist, too. You'll be a—yes, we sit—no, hold up, bro. You're going to be the therapist. I I can be—no, I don't know, man. You got to train—get trained. Yeah, come on, man. Can't—everything we got—have somebody—somebody can throw a problem—have somebody throw a problem—somebody—some thought—something that they're struggling with—something they're struggling with—somebody thought—something that they're struggling with—got something—oh, nobody's struggling—everybody's got perfect. Come on. Step up. Come on. Come on. Come on. Take up your hat, too. We see real strug—seen it—we seen it. My chicken nuggets weren't that good. Let's go. Cut D. You got to St your—you got step back—like Shark Tank. Shark Tank. Yeah, you too—you messing your therapy up already. Somebody coming up with a problem, you like, yo, back up—back—what the [ __ ] man—you got shirt—you you ready for this [ __ ]—struggling on the way here—on the ride here—I lost a friend that I spoke to on Sunday. Damn, sorry to hear that, man. In the last three months, I lost five people, D. It's been funeral after fun—after funeral. And as you get older, close in, and you get to look around like, damn, friend F, right? Y—how do you deal with that? Probably a little older than me, so you probably have more experience with that. Absolutely. So he got deep—I wasn't ready—you on—you—I'm your assist—grand opening—grand closing—nor—and will SMI—celebrity therapy—CER—grand opening—grand closing—go to the AL of Japan is what we will say. I'm assistant—you need—you need water—you need water. So um, it's funny cuz I talked to uh Quincy Jones about this uh you know, he said that exact same thing probably 18 months ago. I was talking to him, and he was like, man, I've been to a funeral every week, you know, and you just you know you just get to that point where that's what it is, you know. And he was like, I'm the last one, you know. And and so part part of the idea—so death—everybody in here is going to die. And before that, we're going to experience a series of our loved ones departing, right? So reconciling death is the highest human difficulty. As soon as you can be with—so for example, my sister was with my father in the room in the moment that he died. My sister did the makeup on my grandmother in the in the casket, right? So but because of that, she's gangster—gangst, right? She can be with life and all that it has to offer, right? So I would say to you, don't shy away from their families. Go sit with them—like look with them—like be with what that loss actually means inside of a human heart. Like be with it, and you you will break your heart in that—I used to do uh the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and it would be dying children who their last wish is they wanted to see me. It's crazy, right? To like be—to be with death is the final human reconcile. When you can sit and look in—you know, I was just—I was actually—I was talking to Gilly, right? And I had to—I made a confession to to Gil the other day. I was like, yo, when your son died—God bless—yes—I reached for my phone multiple times, and I didn't have the courage to call you, right? It's like death is the hardest there is. Like, don't run—stand up—to stand—like be with the people that are hurting—be with the people who are suffering. There's—you can't fix it—just be able to be with people in that level of pain, right? And it's all you can do. It's like we're not—we're not in charge of that part, but what we can do is love each other through it. That's all we can do is be with each other. No, no, no. I'll be something because—no, no, no. I I say something because again, like I I I I I witnessed you downstairs. I seen you get out the car, and I seen the security guard—the same security guard that says hi to me—she said hi to you, and you just you just stood there, and you just opened your arm—arms, and you just accept what life brings you. Yeah, I'm also jealous of that, is because like I automatically—if someone says up to me, I'm like—I don't—I don't immediately put up—but you broke in your hug—out—excuse me—you bring your arms out—yeah, for a hug. And I was like, "What the [ __ ]?" And I I can't think like that sometimes, like especially if I'm in a foreign place. I mean, obviously it's not a foreign place to you, but when I jump out and the person says to me, yo, what's up? I'm like, "What's up?" It's like even when I jog, like if a person says, "What's up?" You got to like actually—give me out—I'm like, "What up, yo," you know what I mean? But but you—all the accolades—all the places you've been—soon as you jump out the car like—and I do this like for the past nine years—I analyze everybody as they get out of the car. Analyze who they talk to. I analyze if they speak to the regular individuals—if they speak to the—or if they want—want to come in and get this interview over and done, because we're not a promotional people. We don't we don't care about interviewing people when they—we care about interviewing legends and icons and making sure they iconic legendary status continues—continues—and continues to grow. But something that was so um um genuine about you is when you jumped out the car, you see me. I saw you. I was like, "Damn, this [ __ ]—he looks like the Wild Wild West right now." It's crazy. It's CRA—I like this [ __ ] is real—he's real. And then and then the the security guard said, "Hi, Will," and she had just did the same exact thing to me, and we we spoke, and I you know I gave her a hug, but your hug was way more genuine than mine, right? Like no no no no—it was real—like like because I was like, all right, cool—this is this lady I got to talk to to get upstairs, and maybe I should—so I did—and I did it—but your hug was like, okay, I ain't seen you in a while. And I was like, I don't know if you said you'd see you in a while—your hug said, yeah, you didn't see you in a while. And then I I um recollect to what you said to us—"Welcome to Philly." Yeah, yeah, yeah. Open love—that's not normal [ __ ]. Yeah, you know, it's it's um it is—it's new for me. I've I've always been open love. I'm just letting you know—for 25 years—we need brotherly love. Yeah, I saw brotherly love this morning. I like, oh, this is where this [ __ ] been at—Charlie M and [ __ ]—Will Smith been hiding his brotherly love [ __ ]—25 years. Yeah, my bad—my bad—I'm sorry. But like so so what I thought, you know, is you know I saw y'all, you know, so you know I greeted everybody, and I saw her off on the side—the security guard was like, oh, you know, cuz kind of—they they know each other—they're doing the thing—she didn't want to like impose—so I was like, "No, no, no. You you safe here, sister. Come on in." So I was like—I wanted her—I could tell it's the end of her work day—work shift—she's going home. So in in my mind, I saw her go like that—to me is the highest—she like—she saw—so I wanted to fan the flames of that energy. You know how hard that is to understand human behavior within that 15 seconds. Back in the days, we could sit there, and you could be like, I know this God, and someone's going to say, yo, that's Ramos from South Bronx—he's he's such such—so you can actually—but now we have 15 seconds to to to to see if this person is worthy of our time or not, right? But you did it in [ __ ] three—well, cuz everybody's worthy of my—he wasn't judging it either way—like there's nobody who's not worthy of my time—now some [ __ ] ain't worth my time—I'm just—you you're much better person than me—I ain't going to lie—you know who you are—some of you [ __ ] a work—I skip your call on purpose—yes—I see you—he lives in his honest—this me—I'm sorry, Will—I'm sorry, Will—let me take a shot—let me let me calm down—that's hilarious. Oh, man, I'm Tak sh—take a [ __ ]—it—let's go. But but everybody's worth your time—that's such a beautiful thing, man. I'm I promise you I'm going to try to live—but I'm not going to live like—I'm not going to sit here and lie to you, you know what I'm saying? But I'm going—I'm going—I'm going to try my best to really feel like everyone deserves my time, because there's certain people that like that have called me—I didn't—they ask me—"Are you having another Monster Energy Event?" As all—you don't follow me on Instagram—like why are you asking me this—crazy—but you you think that everybody—not everyone—most people—like when you go to Target, you speak to people—you go to Target—so so first of all, if you don't know who the person is, you can't really—how would you know they're not worth your time, right? You can't judge that. Yeah, you don't you don't know. And then if you going to mess around—look at somebody based on how they dressed or something like that—you make a lot of mistakes, you know. And you know, so part of—so part of the the Revelation that I've had in these past couple of years is um everything is God, right? So everything is one thing, right? So the idea of something being higher and lower—something being good and bad—that's a that's a false perception of reality, right? That's not—that's not a real—because you can't—you can't know what something's going to lead to. So even something you don't want—even something you don't like—just cuz you don't like it doesn't make it wrong—and just because you like it doesn't make it right, right? So you you actually—you can't know—you literally can't know what the future is. You can't know if we G to go downstairs after that, and you're going to be lunching and walk out in the street, and that girl grabs you—better not be my wife right there—right right there—you know—but it's like—like you don't—don't get me in trouble—no, no, no—if my wife's there—that girl—if I'm walking down the street—that girl needs to let me get hit by a truck—don't put your hands on me, lady—you know—but you can't—we don't—you don't know what's going to happen, right? You can't—you can't know what—when you're going to cross somebody's path again or something. My grandmother said something to me when we first got on the tour bus—the me and Jeff were leaving this—your first—first tour—like yes—like you know 1988 or something—like that—first time getting on a tour bus—and my grandmother said—we're getting on—she—bye baby—she said—um—she says, "Okay, baby, just remember everywhere you go, one day you're going to have to go there again." This your grandmother—that was sitting next to you during the um on the—no, that was my mother—on that—that was my mother. Yeah, my grand—my my grandmother—she passed—was that the grandmother that found the curs—curse where—yeah—found—that's why you don't really curse that much. Yeah, so yeah, she—you let other people curse on this album. I know. Yeah, you think I a be that—you ain't cursed, but you you let the [ __ ] like [ __ ]—okay, he's smart—curs in character—curs in character—another person—it's acting—so it's different—it's different—DN—I got to learn this acting [ __ ]. Yeah, that's that's my goal right now is I'm go to Will Smith acting class—I'm going to Will Smith therapy—but me and you are partners—we're partners in both—Will SN—Will SN—yes—Will Smith network—but it's really nor—nor don't let nobody know that—yes—silent partner—y—to secrecy—y—well, let me just tell you something, man. I really respect you. I really um want you to understand that you laid the blueprint for every rapper who wanted to be something more than a rapper, because rapping was the quintessential level of to where we wanted to get at at one point. Let me take off my glasses—like a Mac wax—but then you hugged Uncle Phil. Yeah, and then you—you br—gangsters—regular people—street people—uh people who pack bags in Wal-Marts—people who deliver food for six brothers—you bring them all together because everyone had that little missing part of their heart—whether they had a father or they didn't have a father—they had something that was missing in their heart—they did that—then you went on—and then you conquered—one of my favorite movies of all time is *Enemy of the State*. You know what *Enemy of the State* is? You remember that? Yeah, I remember that one. I I was in that one—like I was there—that was me—that was me—look at me—look at me—look at me—didn't look like you—it was me—that was me—cuz cuz I asked the Filipino version of you—no—because I asked you earlier what was your most serious role, and to me it was *Independence Day*. You and Vivica together—that that was—y—was two—like the Black actors—they put y'all together—and *Independence Day*. Yeah, that was crazy. July 4th was different. Yes, that's big Will-y weekend—big Wily weekend. Okay, yeah, that's what it was. I know I wasn't around back then—was around back then? I mean, like what year was that? 96? 96? 96? No, said I can explain—it's called DFY—yes—it's called jail—yes—yes—yes—so he did explain—yeah, yeah—that's—but now let's—I'm—I told you—bouncing around—yes—now I realize that you and Michael B Jordan is out of line—out of line—said the—out of line—out of line—out of line—the out of line—he's going to explain in a second—everybody—and *I Am Legend* died. Yeah, how the [ __ ] is there part two? All right, Co—so hold [Applause] on—I can explain—a wolf or something. All right, so there was there was a there was an alternate ending that came out on the DVD. I got to watch—in the alternate ending—my character lives—lives—yep—cheating right now—but I respect it—listen—oh yeah—and I yeah I had him bring this—I wanted you to see this. Oh, oh—I'm leaving with that—no, you can't have it—you can't have it—you can't have it—but I just wanted you to—we were talk about—take a take a picture with—yeah—well, let's take the picture with him when we—I want one by myself [ __ ]—okay—get it, bro—get it—I'm sorry—I just want to do that—but continue—so *I Am Legend*. So your—you see how he was with it—listen—when when efn—he has like little tapes—yeah—right here—Len—listen—by the way, if you touch his tape—even though this is your tape—no—it's mine—I bought this [ __ ]—it—even—it's your music—get—pause—touch it too much—watch—watch how—

You be like, like he's going to throw away that, your wheel, swim. He like, wait a minute, this are M. Okay, so was throwing that [ __ ] around like, I don't look at that. I don't went like this, and he start going like this. He was like, "Cal down, guy." But I am Legend. I'm going be honest with yes, I watch all of your movies. Bad Boys, everything. I did watch that alternate ending, yeah. But I also realized y'all was making up a bag, like, "Let's get another bag." No, no. You misread it. You misre it. It was me. Want me tell you? Want me tell you the truth? Go. So here's the truth of what happened, all right? The altered was, see what had happened was, so the alternate ending was the first ending. The original, the original ending was the original script, and it was based on the original novel. We tested it, and it was the only movie I've ever had that the audience booed at the end, at that ending. What, when the dogs? So in the, in the final scene where they come in and they're around me in the alternate ending, and the, the, the, the Dark Seeker. What we realize in the alternate ending is that he realizes the, the one that was keeping in the room was his woman. And I realized it was his woman, and he was like, you know, the, the meaning of the ending was, "Oh [ __ ], I'm the monster." They think of me as the monster, right? And we looked up at the wall, and we do the shot up at the wall, and you see how many of them are killed. And he looks at them and looks at them and he looks at me, and then he goes in, gets his woman, and leaves, right? So that was the alter ending. We tested it, and the only, so, so how they do these things is they put it in front of an audience, you know. You get a couple hundred people, they fill it out, and you fill out, you know, there's five boxes, and you say either excellent, very good, good, poor, very poor. And what they do is they take the top two boxes, and if you score, you know, 90% in the top two boxes, excellent, very good, you, you, you're pretty sure you have a good movie. It was the lowest scoring movie I've ever had, period. So they scored the whole movie, but it was because of the ending, ending. Okay? And it scored 51 in the top two boxes, and we were like, "What?" So then, then they fill out the thing, and they was like, basic across the board. They was like, "The ending is [ __ ]. That's [ __ ]." He's not the monster. They're dark Seekers. They've been chasing them, and there's, there was something that was just hor, they could, they was like, "No, you're not the monster. We didn't watch this whole movie to figure out that you're the monster. No, they're the monsters." So they felt cheated, right? So six weeks before the movie comes out, we had to re-shoot the ending that was actually in the movies where my character died, that's in New York City where you walk, yeah, right. So, so where my, where my character dies in the end, actually is the alternate ending, right? So it's the, it's the alternate ending, and but we, we were faithful to the novel in the, in the previous one. So when we did the new ending, it scored 91 in the top two boxes, and it was like, "It's just one of them weird things that happens." It was like, "How much does that say about us as, know, right?" Humor, like watching that. No, and it's, but it was, it was, it was, it was like a major save. We saved it because people, the audiences hated it, right? But it was what we originally wanted to do, so we were like, well, we, that we shot, you know, it was probably a $8 million ending that got scrapped. Wow, right? Cuz it, it was special effects and all of that stuff in it. So we, so we ultimately, we like, well, we got to use it. We got to use it somewhere. So we put it on the DVD, on the DVD and Blu-ray, so people saw it. So it popped up online and all of that. And then later the writer, uh, AKA Goldman, he's the Academy Award-winning writer of A Beautiful Mind, and so he's like, "Hey, what if we made another one?" What we were going to do is the prequel. So we were going to do the prequel. What happed before? What happened before? So we were going to go back and do the prequel, and he was like, "But wait, what if we make a new version from the alternate ending where your character is still alive?" And you know, uh, Michael B Jordan's character currently is the head of a new settlement. So he's not your son, like your, he's not my son. No, no, no, not, not my son, not my son. My Dark Seeker son. So, well, he's your evil rival. No. So, uh, well, now I can't tell you the movie. Give me like a l, something. Nobody watching this [ __ ]. Yeah, um, it's only us. It's only us. It's, it's only us. It's only us. So, right, right now, just, just one of people that's I Am Legend fans like me and, um, I, I love the fact that we were doing a number two, but I, I kept, we, we doing another. I love that we doing another one. Will, you know, you said we, you know, know, know, we do, but I love the fact that you do, but I wanted it, so, so for people that's fans like me, make it, make sense for them. Tell them that you, we got, we had DNA left over. Michael B Jordan is coming out. DNA left over. DNA making up [ __ ]. You just making up. Yeah. No, I thought you, you established that, that you're right. You're right, that there's not DNA. So how does Michael B Jordan come to existence? Does a dog eat him? No, no, a dog eat it. What the [ __ ] dog? There's a dog pregnant in. I'm so confused. Remember when he was jogging and I am, let other people is dogs. You're not doing a good job selling this movie right now. I am, I'm not selling Michael B Jordan's movie. No, this is the new, the new social media. You got to get them over here. You got, no, no, no. It's really, it's a, it's a, it's a cool concept. So, uh, currently Michael B's, uh, character is the head of a settlement. So there's a settlement in Connecticut, right? I'm going be honest, well, how's there settlement? There's no judges, there's no nobody in the, apparently. So you going, you're not going to watch it, or you just going to watch? I'm saying everybody dead. Everybody's not dead. We were just see his, him being alive. There was other people. You saw the girl and the little boy. I'm [ __ ] with you. Take another shot. Last shot. This one, this one, this last shot. We going to give you your flowers. We get you your flowers. Thank you. Will, I know you got [ __ ] to do. We go. Here we go. Time, it's slow time with no slime, yo. Thank you, man. Hey, yo, listen, thank you, man. This was fantastic. Please have, listen, man, come have fun with us anytime you, you are in Miami. Pleas, Miami, in Miami, please, please, in Miami for sure. You know that's my town. Yeah, come hang out with. It was beautiful for us to come hang out with you in Philadelphia. It was a pleasure, because one, Philadelphia is a town, and I couldn't, as soon as I, soon as I landed, I thought, "Trading Places" immediately. Yeah, and I, I, I couldn't realize why, then I realized that actually Trading Places happened here. But let me get back to the point. Well, big up to my man Lex, man, you know what I mean? Uh, big up to your whole team. I mean, they were so official. Yeah, so efficient. I don't even know if I'm making sense, but it's [ __ ], and they were so great, and I just want to thank you so much, because so many great people like you have a terrible team. Mhm. Yeah, and then so many people have a, a great team, and then they're terrible people. Oh wow. You actually got your [ __ ] worked out, like, I mean, for nine years of me dealing with every artist from 50 Cent to you name them, I don't want to keep name dropping. I'm telling you this is purely a pleasure for me. Your album is [ __ ] awesome. Thank you. I ain't going to lie. I'm sorry, I'm sorry to say this, but I was listening to it, like, "There's no way he could still be this hungry." So I was actually listening to it for a floor, and I didn't fly on one, and the thing about it is, I want to salute you for that. I want you to, to know that you appreciate it. I want you to know everything that you did, because in a certain way, had you not wrapped and went to sitcom, from sitcom to movies, and then dominated all these worlds, we wouldn't had to, from us, he's a DJ, me a rapper, us to go to podcast. So in a lot of ways, you might own drink chance, but we could do a deal for Old Brook. You know what I'm saying? You're part of our, we thank you, man. I appreciate you, man, um, for taking your time out, and I just want to say something before this is all up. He didn't ask me to say this. Lex asked me to say this. No one asked me to say this. This might be one of his best albums. No, love that. No, what do y'all say? I'm not glazing. It's no cap. No Cap. No Cap. No Cap. No glazing. Listen, I listen to that [ __ ], and, and I'm, I'm going tell you this just in case, and by the way, he did not tell me this. Listen to the first two tracks. If you're not intrigued, adapted, and want to continue for the first two traps, um, first two tracks, excuse me, you're not human. That's it. And you can be an I Am Legend, too. CU. You're not, and I'm, I'm let you dram with the dogs by myself. Yeah. Open, open them up.