In a recent interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers, Will Smith reminisced on his younger days, and opened up about how he stopped swearing after his grandmother found curse words in his "rap book."
In a recent interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers, Will Smith reminisced on his younger days, and opened up about how he stopped swearing after his grandmother found curse words in his "rap book."
His grandmother is the reason behind his lyrics are so clean and articulate.
He began by bringing Will back to when he was 25 years old.
"When I started, you know, it was like Bad Boys 3 — we're going right back," Will responded. "I don't need no stunt man. I'll do it."
"Three days in I was like, 'Ay, where's my stunt man?'"
"I've thought about that," Will answered. "I think that I wouldn't give myself advice, I'd probably ask myself for advice."
"As I've gotten older I've started getting a little bit more fearful."
Gearing the conversation over to Will's rap career, Seth then brought up how brave and bold it was, at the time, that he was a rapper who avoided using curse words.
Popular rap music over the last few decades has never shied away from the use of swearing as a form of expression. It's more common, in fact, for rappers not to filter explicit language from their music.
But Will chose a different direction for his rhymes.
"Absolutely," Will quickly replied.
Will then revealed when his rapping career was still in its beginning stages.
"So, I had my rap book, and I was writing my stuff and I had all my little curse words in my rap book."
Surprise-surprise, Grandma Smith did not like what she found in Will's rap book. But rather than washing his mouth out with soap, she wrote him a note.
“Turned to the back page and she said, ‘Dear Willard, truly intelligent people do not have to use words like this to express themselves."
"I read that, and I was like, ‘[expletive].'"
This is the funniest and most adorable story I've ever heard.
What do you think of the reason Will Smith avoided swearing as a rapper?