Will Smith’s New Album Offers Weak Defense of Chris Rock Slap

While Will Smith is keeping Chris Rock’s actual name out of his effing mouth, the aftermath of The Slap is all over Smith’s new album, Based on a True Story. It’s the one-time Fresh Prince’s first album in 20 years, and he isn’t shy about nodding to controversy.

Take that first track, says Variety. “Int. Barbershop — Day” kicks things off by announcing “Will Smith is canceled,” a popular sentiment after Smith stormed the stage during the live Oscar broadcast and smacked Rock for joking about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. 

Other voices chime in to exchange Smith gossip like we’re listening to a musical comments section. “Who the fuck Will Smith think he is?” asks one. “I ain’t never going to forgive him for that shit he did,” replies another. “Him and Jada both crazy girl, what you talkin’ bout?” another voice chimes in. “You better keep his wife’s name out of your mouth.”

The track’s actual lyrics address the controversy directly: “I heard he won the Oscar but he had to give it back / And you know they only made him do that shit because he’s Black.”

Before anyone buys into Smith’s victim complex, it’s important to note that, in reality, Smith didn’t have to give back his Academy Award for King Richard. He was banned from attending Oscar events for 10 years, however, and he voluntarily resigned with an apology.

Smith seems to be all up in his feelings about the people who kicked him when he was down. But the song’s second track, “You Lookin’ for Me?” boasts that he’s too powerful to stay low for long. “Took a lot, I’m back on top / Y’all gon’ have to get acclimated / Won’t stop, my shit still hot / Even though I won’t get nominated.”

Another point of clarification: Smith is still eligible to be nominated for Academy Awards. But as the first nominee/winner to assault a presenter during an awards show, such an honor is indeed unlikely.

As clapbacks go, this is pretty mild stuff, which makes sense with the incident now three years in the rear-view mirror. And the lyrics are nowhere near as vicious as Rock’s takedown of Smith on his live Netflix special Selective Outrage. Rock made a meal of noting all the people who called Smith a bitch. The comic even called out Pinkett Smith as the true subject of Smith’s ire: “His wife was fucking her son’s friend.”

It would have been weird if Smith didn’t address The Slap somehow — it’s been the dominant narrative of his 2020s showbiz career. But if his take on the Rock attack seems weak, it’s likely because he knows there’s no way to defend it.