The pop is the sound that a crowd makes when, all at once, everybody there yells and screams and cheers because of something that’s just happened. I bet there are more people right now who know the words in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song than the words in the national anthem. If anything, I suspect he’s underselling it. Here’s his quote: “You know, there’s no way to measure this, but is there a hip-hop song that more people around the world know all the words to? Probably not.” If he’s wrong, it’s not by much. In that same article, Andy Borowitz, one of the cocreators of the show, argued that, on a word-for-word basis, he believes it is the most well known rap song in history. The 50 Best Works of Will Smith’s Career The Misunderstood Legacy of Will Smith’s Music Career Sitcom or Not, ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ Knew How to Pull Off Drama The ad is Will Smith and a bunch of fans recreating the theme song.) (This will sound like a lie but I promise it’s not: As I was finishing this article, a Super Bowl ad for the Peacock streaming service was sent out via press release. Fifteen minutes for a song that has lived on for 30 years, and will live on for 300 more. That’s what DJ Jazzy Jeff told EW in 2017. It took 15 minutes for Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff to make it. It’s as tight a theme song as has ever existed. The short version (which is the version that accompanied the show for basically the entire stretch of its six-season run) is just barely over a minute long, but by the end of it you know: who Will Smith is where Will Smith is from what Will Smith’s nickname is what type of person Will Smith is (happy and open-minded) what sort of hobbies Will Smith had as a child his ideology, so far as it pertains to chilling out, maxing, and relaxing all cool what sort of mother Will Smith had (protective and loving so much so that she was willing to send her only child across the country for a chance at a more prosperous life) what sort of interpersonal skills Will Smith had with strangers what kind of traveler Will Smith was (light he reset his entire life 2,730 miles to the west and all he needed was one suitcase) and what sort of extended family Will Smith had (loving). An amalgam of words and sounds and images that feel less like words and sounds and images and more like a red carpet pointing you toward some very potent and personal nostalgia.Īs a storytelling device, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song is unimpeachable. You can even see the swirl move thing Will does with his head after he knocks on the door. And you can see Will being picked up and helicoptered around Will’s mom telling him he’s moving to Bel-Air the taxi with the “FRESH” license plate the highstep move Will does when he heads toward the Bel-Air mansion. And you can see the errant shot ricochet off onto the one guy’s head. You can picture the lazy double-team the defenders tried to trap Will with on the basketball court. And you can see the cartoonish police officer admonishing Will for spray-painting on the wall. You can see the chair spinning in front of the graffiti’d backdrop. You can hear Will Smith, with that perfectly temperatured and welcoming voice of his, unrolling the words for you at precisely the right speed. If I type out the words “NoYou can hear the keys that’ll come in later. There’s no part that I have to set up or explain or provide context for. It’s very easy to do because, I mean, everybody knows it. Writing about the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is very easy to do-and also very hard to do. This is a story all about how pop culture got flipped, turned upside down. To mark the occasion, The Ringer is looking back on the legacy of the original series and the influence of the star who defined it, Will Smith. This Sunday, Peacock will premiere the first episode of Bel-Air, a contemporary, dramatic reimagining of the beloved ’90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
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