Will Smith almost made his award show return at the GRAMMYs: Here's why it didn't happen

'I’ll give the spoiler alert away'
Will Smith
Photo credit Kevin Winter/Getty Images

While the Hip-Hop tribute at the 65th GRAMMYs was quite literally remarkable, there were some missing pieces of the puzzle.

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Questlove, who co-curated the tribute, revealed on the red carpet that Will Smith was in fact supposed to be a part of the 14-minute-long performance.

“I’ll give the spoiler alert away. Will Smith was a part of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting ‘Bad Boys 4’ this week,” he told Variety.

Last week Smith and Martin Lawrence announced a new addition to the Bad Boys franchise, Bad Boys 4.

Quest went on to share how he knew getting Smith to participate would ultimately be a “shot in the dark,” due to the rapper/actor’s busy and consistent film schedule.

It was really important to Questlove to create a well-rounded show, encompassing all of the history and legends of Hip-Hop from every region and with the original show being about 27-minutes-long, producers asked him to cut it down and that’s how they got to the 14-minute performance that took all our breath away.

This would have been Smith’s first award show since he slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscar Awards for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith.

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Featured Image Photo Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images