Will Smith has said that he hated being called a “soft” rapper for not cursing in his music — a decision he made after receiving a heartfelt letter from his grandmother before his rap career had skyrocketed. The Pursuit of Happyness actor, who caused controversy after slapping Chris Rock across the face at the Academy Awards in March, spoke candidly about his personal life and his career in an interview with David Letterman’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.”
The episode — which can now be streamed on Netflix — was filmed prior to the Oscars incident, where Will recalled his incredibly successful rap career as a member of the hip-hop duo, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince in the mid-‘80s before venturing out as a solo artist. Together, the pair released a whopping five albums between 1987 and 1993, with some of their biggest hits including Summertime, Parents Just Don’t Understand, and Boom! Shake the Room. And though Will was gradually climbing up the charts and gaining a heap of recognition as an up-and-coming rapper, some people had deemed him to be too “soft” for their liking because he didn’t use explicit lyrics in his songs.
When David noted that the father-of-three and DJ Jazzy Jeff had a lot of humor in their music, Will reacted, saying, “That was really our major distinguishing quality at the time. It was comedy, it was punchlines, it was fun. We stood out in a really good way. We sort of had our own lane. Asked whether he felt any pressure to quit music later on in his career, he added, “Not pressure as much as it was always that I was soft. I hated that, being called soft.” Will then explained how receiving a letter from his grandma in his teenage years was what ultimately led him not to pursue a rap career filled with explicit-driven lyrics.
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The Philadelphia native had been passionate about music since he was a child, but when Will became a teen, he started penning his own songs — some of which had a few curse words in them. When his grandma came across one of his notebooks at the time, she penned him a heartfelt letter about the direction in which Will saw himself taking his passion for rap.
The letter read, “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”
“That was the reason I never cursed in any of my records,” he concluded. Will has been caught up in a string of controversies since slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, with a handful of his TV and movies having either been shelved or canceled in fear that the negative attention could hinder those projects from being successful. Since the altercation, Will has completely distanced himself from the limelight, presumably to figure out his next move after a hard-hitting couple of months.