The Oscar-winning actor, who is still notorious for “The Slap,” is moving back to his roots in radio-friendly hip-hop with a record on March 28.Will Smith Hector Vivas/Getty Images
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Will Smith has announced the date that his latest album will be released as his imminent return to the world of hip-hop continues after a 20-year hiatus.
The actor-rapper-producer shared the news on Instagram on Sunday, writing in a post that his new album is scheduled for release in two weeks.
“It’s OFFICIAL!! My new album, Based On A True Story, drops on March 28. TWO WEEKS!! Hit that presave. Been working on this project for a minute and I’m itchin’ to get it out to y’all 🫶🏾,” Smith posted on the social media platform to his 69.5 million followers.
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The 14-track album will reunite Smith with DJ Jazzy Jeff and feature collaborations with Teyana Taylor and Jac Ross. Smith released a single, “Beautiful Scars,” that features Big Sean and Obangain, in January.
The iconic comic and dramatic actor, and an Oscar winner for 2021’s King Richard, Smith has risen to the level of a multihyphenate pop culture phenomenon over his career, which began with rap music. He emerged from the fledgling hip-hop scene in the late 1980s as half of the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince with instant classics like “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble,” both of which came with videos that enjoyed heavy MTV rotation.
Smith’s long-running hit NBC sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, featured his rapping, and as his Hollywood career took off, his music career flourished in tandem. At times, his franchise and Hollywood blockbuster movies, including Wild Wild West and Men in Black, featured a title track from Smith. His hip-hop career hit a peak with 1997’s Big Willie Style; he released three more records, Willennium (1999), Born to Reign (2002) and Lost and Found (2005), before putting down the mic to focus on his career in film as an actor and producer.
As an icon of entertainment for the last several decades, Smith is still, for many, rehabilitating his reputation after the shocking moment at the 2022 Academy Awards. This notorious Oscars moment saw the actor walk onstage and slap Chris Rock across the face following a joke the comedian made about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith. The fallout of that moment tarnished Smith’s reputation and led to him being banned from the Oscars for 10 years.
