Will Smith recently opened up about his past rap career, saying he “hated” being called “soft” because he didn’t use curse words in his songs.
The actor sat down with David Letterman on an episode of “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” which was recorded before his now-infamous Oscars incident.
Smith recalled his time as a member of the hip-hop duo, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.
The duo had several successful songs after coming together in 1984 and had five studio albums that all proved to be massive hits.
“You and Jeff had humor to your music,” Letterman said.
“That was really our major distinguishing quality at the time,” Smith said in response. “It was a comedy, it was punchlines, it was fun. We stood out in a really good way. We sort of had our own lane.”
Smith was asked if he faced challenges to quitting his music career to which he said, “Not pressure as much as it was always that I was soft. I hated that, being called soft.”
The “King Richard” actor purposely stayed away from using expletives in most of his discography because of something his grandma said to him when he was 12.
“Dear Willard, truly intelligent people do not have to use words like these to express themselves. Please show the world that you’re as smart as we think you are. Love, Gigi,” she wrote to him after finding his rap lyric notebook that had some expletives in it.
“That was the reason I never cursed in any of my records,” Smith said.
