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QUESTLOVE SAYS WILL SMITH WAS GOING TO MAKE A SURPRISE APPEARANCE DURING THE GRAMMY'S HIP-HOP TRIBUTE


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Questlove says Will Smith was going to make a surprise appearance during the Grammys' hip-hop tribute

 
The "Wild Wild West" rapper had to put the music on pause in order to film Bad Boys 4.
By Emlyn TravisFebruary 05, 2023 at 10:51 PM EST
 

The 65th Annual Grammy Awards is celebrating 50 years of hip-hop with a star-studded tribute that very nearly included the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air himself. 

Questlove, who curated the 14-minute-long celebration that aired on Sunday evening, revealed that Will Smith was originally set to make a surprise appearance during the performance but ultimately had to back out because it coincided with the filming of Bad Boys 4

"I'll give the spoiler alert away. Will Smith was a part of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting Bad Boys 4 already this week," Questlove told Variety. "There's a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will."

Will Smith and Questlove
Will Smith was going to perform during Questlove's hip-hop tribute at the 2023 Grammys.
 
| CREDIT: DAVE ALLOCCA/STARPIX/SHUTTERSTOCK

The multi-hyphenate explained that he totally understood Smith's decision to put filming first. "It was a shot in the dark," he said. "He's always shooting movies. We had a lot of people and some of them have other jobs."

 

He continued, "There was a lot of legit reasons why we couldn't be all inclusive of some people."

In fact, the four-time Grammy winner noted that a few of the performers — including the Roots, Ice-T, Queen Latifah, and LL Cool J — all had to "leave their respective shows" in order to participate in this week's festivities. Questlove added, "It's going to be amazing."

If Smith had made an appearance at the event, it would've marked his and Questlove's first collaboration since Smith infamously slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars just minutes before Questlove won Best Documentary for his film Summer of Soul. Despite accepting the award onstage minutes afterward, Questlove has previously joked that he wasn't totally "present" when the slap happened because he had been meditating during the commercial break.

 

Earlier this week, Smith confirmed on social media that he and Martin Lawrence will be returning for the fourth installment of the Bad Boys franchise. "It's official, y'all!" Smith yelled. "Bad Boys for life, baby!"

The 65th Grammy Awards are airing live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

https://ew.com/awards/grammys/will-smith-dropped-out-grammys-2023-performance-questlove/

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This has me mad. He sometimes talks about how he's not appreicated in Hip-Hop the way he should be.   He had a place in this, and he walked away.  His partner in music was part of this, and he walked away.  His peers, many who have shown respect for him, were involved in this, and he walked way.  This was a one-night event/commitment, and he walked away.  This could have played a big part in his comeback in pop culture, and he walked away. Him and Jeff have the first Grammy for Hip-Hop. The slap didn't really bother me.  This bothers me.   I can only hope that the Grammy's performance sparks interest in Hip-Hop culture and music and that we see more events surrounding it and that he gets his butt in order and participates. 

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Is anyone really surprised anymore? I'm not.

For the last 20 years or so, Will has had one album, small little "freestyle" cameo's of the same 16 bars (Willywood) and has been on some weird songs outside of his normal style, oh and couple shows with Jeff overseas. It just doesn't really add up. 

His last album Lost & Found was him saying after 3 years prior that the rapper was lost to the actor and the actor won. Truthfully, the rapper was lost to the actor around the time of the new millennium and him shooting Ali. 

The whole "biggest movie star of the world" excuse is old and tired. He's the biggest movie star of the world who can call his shots and doesn't have to work another day in his life. You can do anything you want when you have money. He could easily drop songs on Spotify and surprise fans. He chooses not to. He doesn't care. It's not like he needs to even prove anything anymore but dude - stop acting like you're gonna do something musically and then don't. Don't give all this motivational crap about being willing to fail when it's clear as day he's afraid to do something musically again because of failure. Just stop acting. Period. 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/8/2023 at 4:18 PM, DevilsJim89 said:

Is anyone really surprised anymore? I'm not.

For the last 20 years or so, Will has had one album, small little "freestyle" cameo's of the same 16 bars (Willywood) and has been on some weird songs outside of his normal style, oh and couple shows with Jeff overseas. It just doesn't really add up. 

His last album Lost & Found was him saying after 3 years prior that the rapper was lost to the actor and the actor won. Truthfully, the rapper was lost to the actor around the time of the new millennium and him shooting Ali. 

The whole "biggest movie star of the world" excuse is old and tired. He's the biggest movie star of the world who can call his shots and doesn't have to work another day in his life. You can do anything you want when you have money. He could easily drop songs on Spotify and surprise fans. He chooses not to. He doesn't care. It's not like he needs to even prove anything anymore but dude - stop acting like you're gonna do something musically and then don't. Don't give all this motivational crap about being willing to fail when it's clear as day he's afraid to do something musically again because of failure. Just stop acting. Period. 

 

 

You hit the nail on the head Jim man! It's clear as day he's afraid to fail with his music and man that is so worrying just put something out it doesn't have to be Big Willie Style of success he's is letting all of us down and it's so sad i got so excited when he posted that freestyle and at the en of the video it said new music soon i guess not 

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