Blogocentric Formulations

Boom! Shaking the room with DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince

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Song: "Boom! Shake the Room"
Artist: DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
Album: Code Red

Once upon a time, before he was busy trying to make his kids into celebrities... before he was the movie star from Men in Black and Independence Day... before he gave us Big Willie Style... and even back before he moved in with Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv in Beverly Hills, Will Smith and his Fresh Prince persona were rapping along with DJ Jazzy Jeff for much of the mid-eighties through mid-nineties. They recorded five albums together, won two Grammys (including the first ever Best Rap Performance award in 1989), and sold a combined 5.5 million albums.

This song was off their fifth and last album. They were never quite able to duplicate the success of their early hits "Parents Just Don't Understand" and "Summertime," although Stephen Merchant did his best to bring it back into style   during his lip-sync battle with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. That's a hilarious clip that also features JGL singing "Super Bass," another of my musical choices this month. And if you haven't seen these rap battles yet, check them all out on YouTube. This was one of my favorites, but the one with Paul Rudd, the one with John Krasinski, and especially the one with Emma Stone were also amazing.

I've always liked the fact that Will Smith has been a "clean" rapper and doesn't get into a lot of the cussing, misogyny, exorbitant lifestyles, and violence that a lot of rap music tends to utilize. It's nice to have someone who can respect the musical form without all that stuff. Now if only we could get him to do more rap and less After Earth...