Almost 20 years ago, Will Smith warned you not to mess with him, and it didn't go well then either. 🎧 Visit Audible.com/toddintheshadows or text toddintheshadows to 500-500!
@@thisisfyne I agree. SpongeBob is also a nice guy and more likeable than Will Smith too, because SpongeBob knows karate, and how to be responsible. While sure, a lot of us grew up with Big Willie, SpongeBob was always a better; and more iconic character who saved the entire undersea from an evil little plankton, and his evil, robotic wife too, and finally achieved his dream of being a manager. What's the Fresh Prince done since then? Slapped a comedian, and ruined his own reputation. It's as tragic as it is funny, honestly.
@@shawnfields2369gangsta as in one of its most popular producers/directors was also a child predator to all the child actors on the set? Yet, he was allowed to stay with the network for years.
@@alex_flamer267That makes total sense. The entire entertainment world is full of "people" who think they have to be leftists cos they're in entertainment cos the leftists told them that, and for literally no other reason. And they're big on abusing kids. And they know they can get away with it, cos they're all in the same camp. Which makes it "getting away with it" in much the same sense as "getting away with" breathing air: It's just what you do, cos it's all around you. I've been around long enough (1965) to remember 50 years of liberals yelling "Don't exploit kids!" Weird, it's almost like leftists are hypocrites or something...
@@redram5150 Glad I wasn't the only one reminded of it. They might be on different sides of the isle, but they have the same defensive, self-aggrandizing feel.
That Letterman bar is the wildest unintentional self burn I’ve ever heard on a track. “The whitest man in the world, who disavows and talks down on my genre, likes my stuff!”
The thing is, someone on Letterman's show (possibly Paul) had excellent taste in booking their musical guests, at least some of the time. Mastodon, Garbage, Robert Randolph, and above all Warren Zevon... but these are all *rock acts.* When you rely on Letterman to fill your hip-hop playlist, you get stuff like "Zingalamaduni."
Chamillionaire won a grammy and sold a ton of records without cursing. Only diference is that he didn't brag about it. Will is the type of dude to want praise for flushing the toilet and putting the seat down.
@@malegria9641 And it's not like he went into the poor house after either. Like for a while, Chamillionaire was the one signing Todd"s Cheques for a while due to him investing into stuff. Dunno what he's up to now, but I can't imagine he's flipping burgers or something.
The fact that this album with songs that address or take aim at organized religion, black radio, right wing conspiracy theorists, talk show hosts and 9/11 opens with a song that’s just Will Smith rapping over the theme to the 60s Spider-Man cartoon does more to show how disjointed this album is than Switch or Party Starter ever could
@@kamilareeder1493 Yeah, me too. It's awful. Why; has Will Smith always been (for the most part), terrible at rapping? There's exceptions like his verse from Men In Black; Wild, Wild, West(even though that movie blows), his verse on "Summertime"; and the Fresh Prince theme song.
@@shawnfields2369I don't care what anyone says. Wild Wild West slaps. It's the perfect silly movie. I feel like too many people took that movie way too seriously. Which bugs me because Deadpool took off with a similar approach except it was R rated and raunchy. Also Will is a good rapper that progressively got worse as rap evolved and grew as a genre. As Todd says by the year 2000 Will was no longer a decent rapper let alone a good one.
"if you think i suck maybe i'll just enter an unhealthy marriage and refuse to leave it or focus on my issues!" "what will..........how does that do anything........" "well..........SHUT UP!"
Will Smith dropping anti organized religion bars against his ex-wife might be second place behind The Slap in terms of most unexpected things he’s ever done
Out of the many contradictions on this record; the video for Party Starter, his full-on Ludacris crunk club jam song, shows his crib transforming into a pumping nightclub, yet the only drinks that appear at the bar in this place are bottles of water.
[activates galaxy brain] no no, it's not that will in that video was throwing a straight-edge party, he had those water bottles out so that guests could stay hydrated while they do *illegal* drugs, which is way cooler and more hardcore than boring old alcohol!
@@blackdragon6 Mel seems obsessed with Eminem to get attention though. He also acts like the only emcee that's ever existed. Many emcees complained about his attitude over the years.
What’s worse is that it’s on a song where he’s trying to sound heartfelt and sincere. It completely destroys the mood he’s going for. Also, for all his talk about not using profanity unlike other rappers, this is an instance where swearing would’ve made sense. And yet he bleeped himself out instead.
@@stefanfilipovits21 Lauryn Hill, too. I think her insistence that her Unplugged songs were "real" was at least partially defensiveness over her struggle to finish new material. Kind of like "I have to like it, I haven't got anything else", only she couldn't bring herself to admit it.
@@evilira718 I think when you’re that famous it’s hard to find people you can really trust, so it’s difficult to tell which criticisms are valid and which aren’t. Plus, they have to be aware that (as this series shows) one bad project can tank an entire career. It makes sense that “you need to change with the times” sounds like good advice when your album sales have been going down.
A year later, finding out Will slapped Chris while he and Jada were ALREADY separated and him still calling her his wife as if they're still a close and happy couple is... certainly interesting.
@@leaffinite2001but it’s weird for him to do. Like to me, it feels controlling, bc he didn’t need to do any of that. Normally you’d just keep quiet about it instead of lying
@VultureSkins is it controlling? Was he stopping jada from publicizing their separation, or was it a mutual decision? Have they even talked about that? Idk. I think it makes sense that they wouldnt want to be publicly messy... and that if they are pretending to still be a happy couple, will might, being already emotionally rocky, overshoot and do something silly like slapping chris rock
@James Cartwright yeah no, if you are gonna be stupid and racist you could do so somewhere else he got an oscar because he probably bought it, like, fucker has influence and pull because of how much of a box office magnet he used to be all the way until that incident, and also the oscars love them shitty biopics for whatever reason, he just bought it with influence and money, that's it, is a tale older than the oscars themselves
I think it's pretty rich to hear Will firing shots like "Write one verse without a curse" cause genuinely one of the best rap songs I've heard is "If It Ain't Ruff" by N.W.A which has no swears but some of the best rhymes on Straight Outta Compton. If you've got the talent, it doesn't matter if you swear or not.
I'm definitely no expert, but wasn't early rap from the 80s generally a lot more tame in its lyrics anyway? Reminds me of how most pioneer punk or metal records from the early days of the genres sound pretty soft and inoffensive to modern audiences. Genres evolve so much over time.
@@neckpeck2738yes early 80s rap was generally swear free (aside from a few slurs like in The Message). That comes from the original roots of hip hop being more from disco and those kinds of lyrics. Lyrics back then were incredibly simple and more viable for a family audience (I’d say radio, but back then it wasn’t really hitting that yet).
I must say I didn't expect Will Smith to launch into a Richard Dawkins-esque spoken word piece about the hypocrisy of organized religion. It's not bad, but it's like if Taylor Swift stopped in the middle of a song and started ranting about gerrymandering.
@@frederickshaibani5655 OK, but imagine if she played a speech by an economist or a climate scientist over that song like Beyonce did with Flawless. Would it be better?
@@TheSongwritingCat I don't know why but that speech flowed nice into the song? It was pretty good and not jarring at all, or maybe I'm just a bey fanboy lol
Perhaps the image was beginning to chafe then. When people can't imagine him having a complex opinion, and his living depends upon maintaining it, no wonder he's not easy with it.
Shiet, Taylor's fanbase is gigantic and ravenous. Can we start having her sing about topical social and political issues? Wonder how many of her young fans would go out and vote against conservatives if she told them to? Follow up song describes in detail how to vote in local elections too.
Between Passage, Witness and now this, I'm liking this new trend of sympathetic Trainwreckords where Todd seems to really care about the artist involved and want the best for them
@@NJGuy1973 I'd actually really like an analysis on Genesis - they're definitely not forgotten, but I really haven't heard too many people mentioning them in the last decade - especially not as much as Phil Collins' or Peter Gabriel's solo careers.
NGL that "Will I be black enough" line hits for me. I relate to people discrediting your identity because you don't fit in with whatever stereotype or trend
Just saying, it would be FASCINATING if Will Smith in this day and age put out like a 4:44-style confessional record where he really just bears his whole soul out.
This feels like the love child of "Funky Headhunter" and "American Life". Another artist who felt trapped by the image they built for themselves and instead of actually trying to evolve, just decided to chase trends and be mad at their audience
And 'Unplugged' by Lauryn Hill. The artist is clearly going through stuff and needs help. You almost feel invasive for listening like it's too personal and the singer straight up isn't okay enough to know what should stay private. I admire the honesty and the raw emotion, but this doesn't sit right for me.
LL Cool J made Pop Rap Records for decades cause he always moved with the times.. Will Smith could have made more Pop Rap Records but he tried to hard to be something he wasn't.. I don't expect Will Smith to be like 2Pac(No Pun intended) I don't expect Will Smith to be like Nas, I don't expect Will Smith to be like Ice Cube and I don't expect Will Smith to be like Lil Wayne.. I expect Will Smith to be Will Smith.. I listen to all those Rap Artists and I don't expect nothing but what they bring to the table.. I have a dozen Will Smith songs and when I play them I expect Will Smith not Jay Z..
@@52wbending52 Lauryn Hill killed her own career.. She tried to be something she wasn't either.. When you listen to music it will automatically feel natural to you when you hear it..
Patton Oswalt once talked about working behind the scenes at some award show and saw Will Smith come in with his huge entourage. Patton saw Smith alone for a very brief time before the show and he looked completely miserable. The weight of having to keep up appearances was unbearable. This plus his bizarre turn with After Earth can’t make me too surprised by the slap.
It's so insane how much people are obsessing over it, it's almost like people never believed Will Smith was actually human or something? He's got his limits and his frustrations, and if someone attacks his loved ones then he's going to consider fighting back. That's just how people are, and celebrities are just as flawed as the rest of us. A lot of times, they have even more weird flaws to deal with. What I'm really angry at is the Oscar reaction to it. They brought the hammer down on a man trying to stand up for his wife harder than they brought it down on actual known rapists and abusers who are mostly still getting away with it. Will Smith's crime was never the slap. It was always that he "ruined" their special show, and THAT is unforgivable.
@@ar-yj8lb Chris Rock has been making nasty "jokes" about Jada, specifically her hair, for a really long time. It was the final straw for Will Smith. At a really bad time -- but those things never happen at a "good" time. Will Smith is not a "the best revenge is served cold" kind of person, which is too bad, because if he were, everything would have turned out better for him and worse for Chris Rock.
@@nerianasims1849 Oh pplease . Chris Rock made fun of everyone for years . It's what he was known for . If 50 Cent can take him joking about him getting shot , then Jada can take a GI Jane joke
It is very hard to believe that when Will Smith sat down to write an album where he allowed himself to vent about stuff that got under his skin the only things he could come up with were petty crap, dumb rumors, his ex-wife being annoying, and that the black community didn't support him enough. To be very blunt he was a black man in Hollywood in the late 90's and 2000's he had to have seen a lot of messed-up shit and this is all he wants to complain about.
@@vaevictis_ he was raised in West Philly in a working-class family. he didn't become rich (his 1988-89 spending spree doesn't count since he blew all that money away and the IRS ended up garnishing most of it) until the later seasons of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air at the earliest. he's definitely seen some messed up shit early on (he's experienced most of Reagan's polices and their effects on the black community). maybe not as much anymore, but definitely enough to at least rile him up. too bad Lost and Found is just him reciting r/atheism talking points, whining about club dancers not wearing enough clothes, and talking about how much people think he's the nice black man for white people
@@Malkmusianful I was responding to the statement of him being a black man in Hollywood seeing some messed up shit. Hollywood!! And he is a huge multimillion dollar celebrity and had a decent rap career even before his show took off! He just comes off as someone constantly trying to prove he is “hard” when he really doesn’t need to
@@vaevictis_ Unless he was actively ignoring it he definitely saw it (which is possible with how he handled the whole Aunt Viv situation and now admits it). He's an a list star, there's little chance he wasn't privy to the terrible shit that goes on there. Esp as he has ties to Scientology.
The part at the end about Will Smith being on a TMI thing made me realize something about him. He has been a "star" for his entire adult life. He has been an A-lister for more time than he has not been. That has GOT to mess with your perception and emotions. But Will Smith's whole thing is "being cool". That's how he sells himself. It kind of feels like the movies and the music and all that is the only real outlet he might have had for being vulnerable, but outside of that he's like "nah that's acting". So yeah, this album would have been better if he could have just given it all in and really committed to it.
I never put that together before, you’re right. He was 22 when Fresh Prince of Bel-Air first started and was basically in or near the spotlight ever since.
Yeah and he made his professional debut at 18 years old with DJ Jazzy Jeff so that means for 35 years he has had this image that seemed stuck with him until recently.
@@VoidNull9222 And it wasn't like he wasn't already known when he started Fresh Prince. I'd known of him for at least a few years prior to that. Then again, I lived in Philly and it may just have seemed like he was a star already due to my location.
@@timmy841212 that's more than 65% of his life in it; relentless. I've never thought of that until now. He really, _really_ needs to be out of the public eye and in a therapist client chair...like yesterday
The best encapsulation of this record being a bad idea is those shots in the "Party Starter" music video where Will's trying to sing about being the cool, hip party dude, but he turns around and his shelves are filled with _water_ instead of alcohol or even soda.
And the bit where he tells the chick she isn't wearing enough clothes? Seems like a weird time to channel his inner 1888 Kansas Librarian. It was the first party where the Coat Check Girl gives you a coat.
I’ll admit that I never knew much about Will Smith’s music career compared to his acting career, so this will be another lesson in music history for me.
Will Smith's music is alright.. It's just his later work felt weird.. I think he tried to be hard instead of just sticking with what he was doing.. Just change his sound a little to the modern sounds of Pop Rap and he would have still sold records.. Why do you think LL Cool J sold records for so long?? He always modernized his Pop Rap Records.. While still making Underground Hardcore Rap Records..
@@kenrickeasonWill Smith should have imitated the Elephunk Era of Black Eyed Peas. Let's Get It Started in here is a song Will could have featured on and used to promote his 2000s rap career.
It's genuinely impossible to overstate how huge Will Smith was up to the mid 90s. I think it helped that he got big in TV, then in movies, which bouyed along his rap career for quite a while. Like, his soundtrack work was broadly received even as his rap albums were falling off.
@@andersonwang1746 Wasn't Fresh Prince his rap name before the show? He had his rap hits and then made the decision to take the rap persona and make a family-friendly show?
it's important to note that Will was a rap icon _before_ he _ever_ was an actor. The whole draw of 'Fresh Prince' was that it was a sitcom starring a rapper and that was a weird novel thing. "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble" came out in 1987 and Fresh Prince started airing in 1990.
It's crazy how much DNA is shared between this album and other Trainwreckords. Funky Headhunter with Will trying to pull off something he's not able to, Lauryn's overhonesty and preachiness, the Robin Thicke feature. It may not be an outright bomb or anything, but it fits neatly into the Trainwreckords discography.
It has the loss of public respect of st anger, the “trying to build credibility after being seen as soft” connection to Passage, and the attempts to cash in on the sound of the time of 0304
I’m guessing you’ve already seen this but if you can find it, Lindsay Ellis did a collab with Rap Critic a really long time ago called “Will Smith was a rapper once…” and Rap Critic hits on this topic. I’m paraphrasing but he essentially says that when gangsta rap became more prominent, “kid friendly” rappers like Will Smith and MC Hammer had to adapt to the harder image or get left behind. Then after Biggie and Tupac were killed, rap relaxed on that “hard” edge and went more for the classic and crisp look, which Will fit into well, and that’s when we got “Men In Black”, “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It” and “Miami”
Also it's similar to Arrested Development where not only did they both constantly throw shade at gansta rap but they both did during an acceptance speech at an award show.
As someone who came of age in the Willennium era, Will's music career is always a very humbling and sad reminder of how much his public persona/image was almost inseparable from his work, to his own detriment. Most of his music was either about him bragging about himself or his squeaky clean image, which really revealed just how corny he could possibly be. This is like if Speech and early 2000s Bill Cosby got together and made a rap album.
I think he’s probably the corniest rapper ever. Least Hammer came close to being an actual emcee. Will definitely seemed like he only rapped cause everyone in his neighborhood was doing it. And he decided “what the heck? Lemme jump in it.”
That what bothered me the most.. You don't have to brag about you being this way or that way.. The Music speaks for it's self.. You don't have to belittle other Rappers who do it differently than you or such.. I still enjoy Will Smith's music like I still enjoy Kenya West's music but today they are both Narcissists people..
PSA: Taking a swing at Wendy Williams is never a waste of time, as long as you keep it to just words (and not death threats). It will always be seen as punching up.
@@dusty2080 She's basically a black Lucy van Pelt from Peanuts/Regina George from Mean Girls who never grew up and got her own talk show. It's just as mind numbingly cruel as it sounds to watch
For those surprised that Will went from a family-friendly pop rapper who went for harder, party songs and diss tracks when he could’ve changed his original sound slightly, remember: this is the same man who turned down playing Neo in The Matrix to be in Wild Wild West. Also, if anything, this reminds me of MC Hammer’s The Funky Headhunter. Both of them appealed mostly to kids and families with their original music, but went into a more adult-oriented, hardcore sound when their musical popularities declined. And yet all it did was show their artistic flaws even more and led to their downfall. And in both cases, they didn’t even need to alter their sound that much, because pop rap was still a thing, even if it evolved somewhat.
The albums are definitely similar in their intent,but I think their actual content is different. MC Hammer just comes off as a phony doofus trying too hard. Will comes off as a quite bitter guy that changes with the times almost like he is forced to.
I mean, hindsight is 20/20 crystal clear but I imagine at the time The Matrix looked like a weird niche film for sci fi nerds (and remember that nerd cultural dominance was definitely NOT a thing back in 1999) whereas Wild Wild West was a big Hollywood blockbuster financed to the gills (it had over triple the budget of The Matrix) with a bunch of important names connected to it and based on a classic TV property (which movie remakes of were hot shit back then, and one that was a hit could make an actor's career). Anyways Keanu is a far better pick for Neo than Will would have been.
@@GhostSound2 well, considering Funky Headhunter had Hammer dissing Run-DMC, A Tribe Called Quest, and RedMan, there was quite a lot of bitterness on that album too.
Honestly, I kind of dig how neurotic this record is lol. So used to hypermasculine rap posturing that it's... interesting to hear this fractured, anxious, narcissistic but also kinda self-deprecating lyrical content. It's not comfortable listening but at least it's not boring?
Same. I wish I made that is a sentiment that I've felt as a creative myself, and seeing Will actually struggle with thoughts like that among the other topics on the record (Like being put o the pedestal of the "good black man") is really interesting.
Yeah, it’s what makes this record hard to look away from. Using hip hop swagger to convey a shocking degree of insecurity, grievance, hypersensitivity, and validation-craving.
It's like if Drake was rapping about being on Degrassi, but over the same exact kinds of boisterus, huge beats as his competition in the late bling era.
I worked in a movie theater when MEN IN BLACK 2 came out. So I had to spend an entire summer cleaning the theater while "Nod Ya Head" blared over the end credits. What stuck out to me though was Will Smith promoting the single on MTV Spring Break. First off, there's no choreography he could muster to make "Nod Ya Head" look cool. It just didn't work. Second, I remember him being interviewed onstage in front of the crowd and saying "I refuse to lose. Whatever it takes to master my craft, I'll do it." And people applauded, but it gave me pause. I thought, "There's more to life than winning all the time, Will. There's no shame in failure if you tried your hardest." I think I viewed Will Smith differently after that. I viewed him as someone who sacrificed his own happiness out of a pathological obsession with being the best.
Todd's acting skills have improved a ton over the years, but there are so many expressive moments in this video, especially 12:27. Even as a shadow, I could tell exactly every emotion he had.
Honestly he is a MASTERFUL physical actor and comedian. I can only imagine how much he contorts his face and his voice in order to communicate some of the stuff he does.
he’s such an icon to me- over the years he’s continually improved consistently. He’s timeless, he’s one of the rare internet personalities who has been doing the same bit for ages and still feels fresh and classic.
@@CarlsCozyCorner I always love actors/performers like that. The type that somehow without a face or voice can get across so much emotion through exaggerating everything else.
I can't believe that you did not mention how Will obviously failed to explain 9/11 to his son, as Jaden was spreading conspiracy theories on his album SYRE...
The reason it didn't become a major controversy is that almost nobody listened to the album or even knew it existed. Can't get offended if you don't hear it.
Your criticisms are spot on. Except the one about him getting Robin Thicke on the album because he "couldn't afford" Justin Timberlake 😳 This is early 2000's Will Smith. That man could've afforded to have Elvis exhumed, reanimated & featured on the song. The only possible answers are that he was/is super thrifty with his bread, or JT straight up turned his ass down. Imo of course.
Wasn't Justin Timberlake also super popular in early 2000s? If there's anyone who could be out of Will's price range at the time in the music world it would be him.
I'm disappointed he didn't go full Unplugged 2.0. Some of these tracks sound like they would have made great bookends to twelve-minute monologues about being real.
@@samuelstensgaard4828The Men in Black II theme slapped when I was a kid but as an adult that theme was terrible. The 1st Men in Black still holds up and is very good in 2023.
I'm 18 and I knew about his music, but trying to imagine Will Smith as a contemporary musician back then is a bit of a trip, to be honest, so you're kinda right
Will Smith, to me, feels like a very self-conscious person. He's open about himself but he also seems to care a lot about what others think of him. It's not to the point where he's confrontational (well, not until recent at least), but it is clear that he isn't afraid to get emotional even when it might not paint him in the best light. It's kinda like the Kanye situation, except when Kanye is being open, it paints him as increasingly unhinged and petty, whereas with Will, it's just a lot more pitiable.
"Stan" worked because it was self-critique. Eminem's conflict about his impact on people like him or like Slim. A rapper who wrote rhymes about hating and killing his GF is confronted with a man who actually hated and killed his GF. Will is too gassed-up to self-reflect the way Eminem does. He HAS to be the good-guy.
Actually Will Smith did tried to have a comeback as an EDM artist. He released his single "Get Lit" to virtually no attention in 2017. He even performed it live on a Croatian beach festival. It sounds like a very bleak rip-off of Diplo or Skrillex.
I think he's just gotten really into producing music over the past few years. Beatmaking is pretty much completely accessible to anyone with a working computer now, and he seemed to have just picked it up in his spare time. I don't think he was completely serious about it.
Hearing this record makes me realize that Donald Glover did almost the exact same thing, keeping up a lighthearted image as a star before completely nuking it with a bitter, darkly comedic record. The only difference was that Donald kept his signature self-awareness with him into his music career, made the choice to make music in a more palatable style when he started tackling his personal issues, and even had a name change to solidify his artistic change. Childish Gambino is undeniable proof you can be an actor and a pop rapper without losing your dignity and still have the respect of even the snottiest critics and rap listeners.
Camp hasn’t aged super well but Because the Internet deserves to be recognized as a masterpiece. It holds up astoundingly well, I think it’s the best thing he’s ever made
Todd makes a surprising number of Mean Girls references in his reviews. I’ve been noticing it for years. I like to imagine he’s secretly as much of a Mean Girls fanatic as I am
MEAN GIRLS is a widely-acknowledged classic comedy of the 00s. This is like somebody saying they're into this artist most people don't know named Adele.
Your point about Will Smith being fun was spot on. I don't begrudge him for trying to be "hard" or "deep" but he was so elite at making fun pop music why go away from that? He had fared soooooo much better and looked back on more fondly than pretty much any pop rapper from the 90's. Even with the Eminem diss, he was never a joke on the level of MC Hammer, who was actually a real gangsta who disguised himself as an easily digested radio friendly rapper, or Puffy, who was an easily digested radio friendly rapper who disguised himself as a real gangsta. Will Smith was just fun dude and should have leaned more into that even in the changing times of 2005. Even when he didn't have "street" cred, he always had the "old school" cred on top of the fact that he's probably one of the richest rappers of all time. I don't want to tell him how to live, but Will Smith should have been happy just being being the fun guy. There are worse things than being the unthreatening, nice guy who's a mediocre rapper, namely being the salty dude too much in his own feelings taking himself way too seriously and is a mediocre rapper.
He loved making the fun pop music but he also loved being a true rapper because he was a true rapper from the 80s. He just wanted to be able to have the freedom to also be taken seriously as a rapper whenever he tried to showcase it.
@@peterDcontact TLC sold 10 million records and a majority of their money went back to their record company. Music isn’t as lucrative as it seems. A majority of artists have to do other things in order to break even such as fashion, perfume, make up, producing etc.
@@lightonsnow1 TLC also had a famously all-time bad record deal. They only got like 7% of revenue from albums sold (typical industry standard is 15%) & they signed away the rights to the actual name "TLC" (which they had to buy back 1 letter at a time). An artist *can* make money off albums sold, they just need a fair percentage & can't let themselves get a bad deal on their advance (or waste their advance, which happens a lot when bands are dysfunctional). It's still a system weighted in the record company's favor, but a lot of musicians mismanage their own finances & keep dumb people around them.
I do think this happened. He wrote some songs for hitch and then realized he wanted to make an album for himself. It was the transition for him to be more open and personal but this album felt a bit more like an initiatial tantrum. One where you're finally trying being honest with yourself but not knowing where to vent or how much
Which, as a creative person, I get. Sometimes emotional diarrhea like that helps get it out of your system. But I'd never imagine releasing it to the public. Not because I'm afraid to be raw, but because it's self-centered in nature and I don't want my art to be all about me.
This is a great video. I've noticed with so many Trainwreckords, the artists either: 1.) Try something new that doesn't work or is so different that it alienates their fanbases or 2.) Complain about their fame and how miserable they are, sometimes intertwining it with the politics of the day, which never goes over well. This series puts into perspective what artists should NOT do if they want to further their career. Can't get enough of this series.
Don't forget 3) Made a concept album about a dark cyberpunkish future where music is banned or something and the lead singer is the hero who saves the world through the power of rock. And I know that's incredibly specific, but that is why it is very weird that it happened twice ("Killroy Was Here" and "Cyberpunk").
Except that good artists CAN pull these off-a good example of both back to back is Radiohead’s OK Computer, which was the result of feeling negative and miserable and sick of touring and discouraged by what they witnessed around them on tour, then Kid A, which alienated a lot of people and plenty of hate before it was recognized as a classic. More recently, Billie Eilish’s last record definitely falls under #2, and she’s going strong as ever. I’d argue that where artists usually go wrong there is simply failing to be relatable or make their audience care. Billie talks about craving pity or wanting attention, but in a way that feels self aware and wise, and inspires listeners to self-reflect, whereas Will Smith’s vulnerability comes off as self-centered, spoiled, and at worst, insensitive to his audience.
@@kylanbowden6125 Yh 2 can be done very well, Eminem’s most successful albums are the ones where he’s talking about his success and how miserable his life is.
I've come to really love Trainwreckords for a lot of reasons but especially because it shows off how insightful Todd can be, he pours SO much research into these videos (and boy does it show) and in doing so, develops a really clear picture of these artists and their art and has a lot of valuable commentary to offer
I was tired of people’s takes on The Slap the second it happened. That said, Will Smith cannot sell being hardcore. I think that’s the actual reason people are so shocked.
@@eamonndeane587 or distracts people from how the academy got Megan and a bunch of reggaeton stars to sing we don’t talk about Bruno instead of THE ACTUAL CAST!
Frankly, the fact that people are flipping their lid so much more over Will Smith reacting to literal decades of goading from Chris Rock over, oh, IDK, Alec Baldwin literally killing someone is some patently racist shit. What a mountain out of a molehill.
Also things that matter significantly more like the guy who burned himself to death on the steps of the Capitol to protest climate disaster and the media’s pretending he did it for no reason or it was a weird accident.
I've been watching a large amount of various Trainwreckords episodes recently, which has lead to the music in my head being an uncanny mashup of the "heeey" from Switch here, Intuition by Jewel, Mr. Roboto by Styx, the chorus of the Spin Doctors' Big Fat Funky Booty for crying out loud and Hollywood by Madonna, which is...quite the experience to say the least
I wonder how much Will Smith felt or still feels like Sidney Poitier. That kind of reputation and expectation to be the 'good' black man who isn't threatening or angry, and subsequently is suffocated by the 'ideal black man' mask despite personal struggles and marital troubles. That line about being the nice guy who is on par with a white man really hits me as coming straight from 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.' Like in order to be on par with white men and white audiences he has to be so family friendly and so careful about his image. No wonder he fucking cracked under all the pressure. I don't think white American audiences ever wanted to see Will Smith as a real person, so we didn't pay attention until we couldn't look away.
I don’t know much about Sidney Poitier, did he ever speak about what you’re referring to? I’ve always enjoyed him as an actor but had no idea about this pressure
So many Trainwreckords subjects have been family friendly acts chafing against the fact that they aren't as cool or commercially popular as the edgier side of culture of the time. Hammer, The Carpenters, Arrested Development, and now Will. Some of them, like Hammer, try to be edgier and fail. Some of them, like Arrested Development and The Carpenters, staunchly refuse, saying "I shouldn't have to be violent to be popular or to be taken seriously". Will Smith is rapping about 9/11, ripping off Luda and 50, and contemplating the murder of his ex wife all while bitching and moaning about how black radio only plays gangsta shit... and also sampling spider-man. What tone are you going for Will?
The irony about Hammer is that he was that type of dude. He was respected in the streets. There's a hilarious Redman interview on Vlad TV talking about their beef.
Also, I didn't notice this at first, but "Lost and Found" the title track is a straight up rip off of Eminem. It sounds just like "Business" from The Eminem Show.
Please, Todd, do an episode on Eminem’s “Encore.” Yes, his career continued to thrive, but that album was the definitive end of his glory years, with nothing he’s released since topping those first three Aftermath albums. And with everything Em was going through behind the scenes, combined with the massive difference in quality between the album’s best and worst songs, I feel like it would make a compelling subject for one of your video essays.
I think that he’s been too successful for it to count as a Trainwreckord. No previous Trainwreckord artist has had nearly as much success after their “disaster album” as Em. It would be awesome to see Todd analyze Encore, but I feel like it just doesn’t fit with the “Trainwreckord” series
Bill Cosby openly criticized other comics, including Eddie Murphy, about using profanity in their sets. In fact, there are hundreds of examples of people being staunchly against the thing they actually are, but are desperately trying to hide.
I think the main problem with this album is that all the songs have exactly one theme, and it's that Will Smith is having his Madonna/Katy Perry moment where he's entirely uncomfortable with everything he did before and he resents that the identity he created for himself is now a chain that binds him. Like he tried very hard to create this identity, and then wasn't happy that he couldn't just change that identity on a whim. He's a controlling dude, deep down, but in his case it's about controlling his image and the perception of himself.
It’s real weird that Will said the record is called “Lost and Found” cuz he was finding his lost rapper but the song “Lost and Found” is about how the other rappers are lost and he’s the only one keeping it real.
11:01 "...he can rap, he can act, and if it comes down to it, he can *scrap!* , Hey there, here comes Big Will again!" Will really out here warning us years in advance didn't he lmao
It's interesting how age can skew someone's perspective of celebrities. As someone about a decade younger than Todd, I completely forgot Will Smith was a musician until I saw this video, in my mind he's an actor first and foremost.
In hindsight, the comparison to Kanye West has developed an interesting new layer. Only Will Smith himself can know how genuine his apology was, but at least he made one. And at least he didn't defend Nazis.
Although this album would have eventually been featured as a Trainwreckord, we can thank the slap heard around the world for accelerating things and so here we are.
2:29 I don't think the value of "Trainwreckords" lies in its strict adherence to the "rules" of what deserves to be on the list. I watch this series to rediscover lost bygones of pop music and learn about the failures of the industry as a whole. You do such a good job of that, so I don't really care about what technically classifies as a true trainwreckord. Also I understand that this was a rhetorical question in the video. Just my two cents.
"If you told me before the Oscars that someone was gonna get out of their seat and smack a presenter, I'd have picked Liza Minnelli before I guessed Will Smith!" This is an all-time Todd line, good golly gosh.
I think Will's "actor" problems leaked through to his music way more in this record. This is mostly evident in the diss tracks which feel a lot more like you're reading a twitter feud between catty showbiz divas than a battle rapper firing off at his haters.
The whole debacle made me realize I haven't actually listened to any of Will Smith's albums outside of his Greatest Hits, so I gave Big Willie Style a spin. It's a surprisingly solid album as far as that late '90s shiny suit style goes (and the singles are untouchable), but I bring it up here because there's a song addressing his haters called "Don't Say Nothin'" way back on THAT album! If Will was already gettin' pissy wit it and angry at the way people talked about him way back in 1997, HOO BOY was the future not kind to him.
This album was actually my first exposure to Will Smith's music (as a REALLY young kid I saw bits of Fresh Prince a few times), with ""Switch" appearing on one of the first music CDs I got when I was 5 (Now 19). I still have a soft spot for that song tbh.
The Slap Heard Around The World did reveal a lot about Will, but it also got people looking deeper into Will’s transformation. For example: this album.
Personally, I am not shocked about the slap. I am actually shocked it took so long for the general public to observe Will Smith's declining mental health considering the fact he and his family are scientologists.
@Perverted Alchemist To be short on the Oscar's 2022 slap, I'll just be quick and say Chris Rock's joke is quite tame and NOT worthy of a deck across the face.
Be real everybody: If he didn't retaliate, he would have been laughed and mocked, if he retaliated (which he did) he would have been seen as violent. Chris Rock should apologize. Just don't go there with your jokes, man!
