Page 24 - Will Smith: A Biography of a Rapper Turned Movie Star

Will Smith
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listening to funk as Will had. Jeff ’s parents loved jazz, and as
a kid Jeff had spent many hours listening to his parents’
records. He took a liking to the music and even tried mixing
jazz and rap. That led to Jeff ’s nickname: DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Jeff had teamed up with other rappers before, but they
never seemed to click. So he did not expect much when at
that January party Will came over to the turntable and asked
Jeff if he would rap with him for a while.
The result was magic. Jeff later said that the two seemed
to flow together as they played off each other’s rhythms.
After that, Will and Jeff got together a few more times. They
rapped in Jeff ’s basement studio and put tracks together.
Still, after his bad past experiences with other rappers, Jeff
was hesitant to team up with another partner.
That attitude changed a few weeks later when the two
bonded over a favorite amusement of teenage boys: gross-
out humor. They were working a party. Jeff had taken along
a spray can that appeared to be an air freshener. But it was
really a gag spray can that emitted a foul smell when the
nozzle was pushed. Jeff sprayed it at the party, and he and
Will cracked up laughing. Jeff later said that the two of them
just clicked. They had the same style of humor.
Will and Jeff began to spend more and more time
writing and recording rap songs based on their life
experiences. Since neither of them had grown up on the
dangerous streets of a poor neighborhood, their subject
matter was different from that of many rap artists. Their
style was more like that of Sugarhill Gang. Instead of