Page 18 - Will Smith: A Biography of a Rapper Turned Movie Star

Will Smith
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The best places to check out rap artists at the time were
inner-city street corners. Amateur rappers would challenge
each other to impromptu rap contests. Will was always ready
to jump right in. But some of the urban neighborhoods where
rappers did their thing were rampant with drugs and crime.
Will spent many evenings in tough, dangerous
neighborhoods, and his father did not want him getting
into trouble. One day Will Sr. gave his son a memorable
lesson. He told Will to hop into the car. Then he drove
through one of the worst neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
Will later said, “He pointed to the bums sleeping in the
doorways and said, ‘This is what people look like when they
do drugs.’”14 His father’s antidrug message was clear.
Street corners were not the only places for novice rappers
to make noise. At neighborhood block parties held in the
streets, the music was provided by area disc jockeys, or
deejays (DJs). At that time, recorded music was played on
vinyl records. At the parties, the DJ supplying the music
would stand behind a record player’s turntable, often called a
“wheel of steel,” and scratch the needle (a small, pointed
stylus) moving along the grooves of the record. Scratching
some records and including snippets of others created a basic
beat. The magic that rap DJs could produce with a turntable
itself became an art form. The ones who worked the magic
became known by a special name: turntablists.
Rappers at the parties would come onstage and recite
original verses to the beat, creating informal competitions.
Even though he was only twelve, Will earned respect from