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We doubt anyone had gettin\u2019 jiggy with Will Smith on their bingo card for 2025, but there we were, reveling in the flows of the Fresh Prince at the House of Blues on March 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An intimate evening with Will Smith feels about as rare as you\u2019d expect. The superstar actor, rapper and alien ass-kicker from Independence Day <\/em>all but vanished after the Academy Awards slap incident of 2022. But Smith has since emerged with a new lease on his famous life, announcing a headlining tour in support of his first rap album in 20 years, Based on a True Story<\/em>.<\/p>\n At Mandalay Bay\u2019s House of Blues, he set the stage for a comeback, delivering an emotional, nostalgic and exceptionally fun ride.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe word for tonight is joy. That\u2019s what we\u2019re here for tonight,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe gon\u2019 leave the world outside. We making our own space in here.\u201d<\/p>\n Opening with the signature Bad Boys <\/em>theme song, the 56-year-old Smith flexed the finesse of his pen and songcraft, blowing through tongue-twisting bars that set the crowd ablaze with screams and palpable hysteria. Classics like \u201cGettin\u2019 Jiggy Wit It,\u201d\u201cBoom! Shake the Room\u201d and \u201cSwitch\u201d have never sounded better than with a live band, which backed Smith up with some of the nastiest bass lines imaginable.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSeems like we got a couple of people in the house tonight that mess with that old school hip-hop,\u201d he said approvingly before launching into a casual spat of rhymes over a layer of boom-bap beats.\u00a0<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s goofy Fresh Prince persona also popped up frequently throughout the night. With a roomful of fans mirroring his moves, he broke out into the Carlton Dance. And his knack for beat-boxing shined alongside guitar riffs and wickedly sharp violin solos. Smith, to a charming degree, embraced all his varied eras, salsa dancing to a lively rendition of \u201cMiami\u201d and donning a cowboy hat for \u201cWild Wild West.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That said, the mood shifted slightly when he paused to pay tribute to his late mentor, James Avery, who played Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cJames Avery was a father figure to me. He was like a father figure to a generation,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe set the standard of what a responsible man is supposed to be. On Fresh Prince of Bel-Air<\/em>, I was there under James Avery just like, crafting myself as a man.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Smith also confided that he fathered his first child while working on the popular 1990s TV show. \u201cI\u2019ve never been more scared than the night I brought that baby home,\u201d he said, adding that he wrote the first verse of ballad \u201cJust the Two of Us\u201d that night. In a heartwarming display, photos of his children and wife aired on screen as he performed it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those anecdotes alone would\u2019ve been worth the ticket, but then Smith addressed the infamous Oscars incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI had a couple of really powerful years of soul searching. There was a Will Smith that was perfect. There was a Will Smith that was flawless, and it was the image of everything I wanted to be. But there was a reality of emotions and things that I pushed down and put away because I thought people wouldn’t like me if they knew I had sadness in there,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought people wouldn’t like me if they knew I was scared sometimes. If I was confused. If I was angry. I took the last couple of years, and I really looked at myself honestly. And what I realized is, really, I’m just like y’all. \u2026 Every single person is going through something.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The rapper revealed he started working on Based on a True Story <\/em>shortly after he assaulted Chris Rock on the Oscars\u2019 stage, and he shared some of the new tracks over the course of the evening. \u201cYou Can Make It,\u201d a gospel-inspired epic featuring Philly-born singer Fridayy and the Sunday Service Choir, has topped the gospel music charts. It also made for one beautiful start to the finale of this show. Smith also performed the redemptive spoken word track \u201cWork of Art,\u201d which sums up exactly where this icon has landed in his healing journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I wrote this verse it was like I tapped into a sense of acceptance of myself. The good, the bad and the ugly,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018Work of Art\u2019 is the realization that I\u2019m all of it. You don\u2019t have to be perfect to deserve love.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n