Will Smith was once a seemingly nice guy who everyone rooted for. He was raised hard and spent most of his time on the playgrounds of West Philadelphia, or so we are told. He made fun music, and then a fun TV show, and then became a serious actor.
Then, the bad stuff started. He has obvious and public marital problems, and he smacked Chris Rock in front of millions on television. Smith was suffering an ugly fall after being a long-time fan favorite.
Maybe the cheesiness and peppiness were all a lie to sell the Will Smith package to millions. Perhaps, he was never truly the nice guy or the good guy. He was charming, but maybe there was a dark side to everything.
Will Smith drops a new song, but is it any good?
Seemingly in hopes of reclaiming his good-guy image, he has released a new song called "Pretty Girls," and there is a video that goes along with it. The lyrics are meh, but the video at least attempts to show Smith enjoying life again.
It is easy to proverbially kick Smith when he is down. Too easy. The question is whether he has done anything too harsh for us not to give him a bit of a break now and again. After all, his wife, Jada Pinkett, was the one who created the public scene of their marriage strife.
And Smith smacked Rock (which he shouldn't have done) only when defending Pinkett. It was wrong because violence is wrong, but at least on the same base level, we probably understood what Smith was thinking.
We might not know what the artist formerly known as the Fresh Prince was thinking when making the "Pretty Girls" video, though. He plays a tiny Will, who raps/sings about women of all sizes and shapes, and colors. That's the good part. The bad part is the video overshadows, likely intentionally, the terrible lyrics.
He must have gotten paid extra for using the word "pose," for instance, based on this stanza: "I'ma post your pic if you pose/Make one phone call, you in Vogue/Head, shoulders, knees, toes/Hold up, wait, pose."
"Head, shoulders, knees, toes..."? What? Was Smith inspired by a children's sing-along when creating this track?
Then there is this: "All the pretty girls, put your drink up/I'll get you anything you think of/I like BBLs/That stand for 'Bad b****** link up'."
It's one thing to drop an acronym in a hip-hop song, though the idea is that listeners would understand what you mean and wouldn't have to do that. It's another thing to try to shed a positive light on different types of female bodies, but then to mansplain something in the song.
Is the video fun? Yeah, mostly. But the song is forgettable.