Will Smith addressed the infamous Chris Rock Oscars slap head on as part of his new album, “Based on a True Story.”
The music project marks his first full-length solo album in the past 20 years. The first song off the 14-track album, “Int. Barbershop — Day,” opens with the phrase: “Will Smith is canceled.” Multiple voices open the album criticizing Smith, questioning how he raises his kids and, more broadly, “Who the f–k Will Smith think he is?”
The opening track continues to address arguably the star’s biggest scandal of his career, the Oscars slap, directly: “I heard he won the Oscar but he had to give it back/And you know they only made him do that s–t because he’s Black.”
While Smith did not have to give his Academy Award for his leading performance in “King Richard” back, the Academy did ban him from attending any event related to the organization for 10 years. Smith also resigned his Academy membership and issued an apology, expressing remorse for his actions.
During the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony, Rock was presenting an award and made a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Smith, who was nominated and later won that night, then walked up on stage and slapped the comedian across the face. When the actor returned to his seat, he shouted: “Keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth!”
Smith even referenced his response to Rock in a self-deprecating manner on “Based on a True Story” with the line, “Him and Jada both crazy girl, what you talkin’ bout?/You better keep his wife’s name out of your mouth.”
In the second track “You Lookin’ for Me?,” Smith continues to rap about the scandal, saying he is “back on top” just three years after the 2022 controversy: “Y’all gon’ have to get acclimated/Won’t stop, my s–t still hot/Even though I won’t get nominated.”
The “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” actor could still be nominated for an Academy Award despite being on rocky terms with the organization. Prior to Friday’s new release, the actor/rapper’s last album was 2005’s “Lost and Found.”
“The past couple of years, I’ve been doing a very deep exploration of who and what I truly am,” Smith said in a teaser video for the album on Thursday. “The process of this album is really allowing myself to be more honest with myself than I ever have about who and what I actually am… This is about to be the greatest artistic creative period of my entire life.”
