On the latest Broken Record podcast episode, “Big Willie” -- Will Smith -- joins host Justin Richmond discussing his decades-long music career, his start in Philly, new music, and much more.
LISTEN NOW: Broken Record | Will Smith
Will Smith’s new project, his first album in 20 years, Based On A True Story, will be dropping in three parts this year with the first arriving in March, trading his normally positive attitude for one that is darker, more complex, yet still inspiring.
Keeping in line with his true-to-life theme, the rapper and actor discussed a couple of conversations he had in the past with two equally larger-than-life figures -- Notorious B.I.G. and Prince -- shortly before each of them had passed. And by "shortly," we’re talking hours.
Will says his meeting with the "Purple One,” was an odd one just like many other celebrities have had, adding they spoke just “eight hours before he died.” Prince apparently had a business proposition for him which also involved rapper JAY-Z. “He was pitching, saying that me, him and JAY-Z should start an entertainment company and he said he had talked to Jay and he wanted to do it,” Smith explains. “We talked that night, and in the morning, he was gone. I don’t know what that says about me. I’m like, ‘Oh, no. Don’t call me, don’t call me.'”
Smith reveals he also met Brooklyn rapper Notorious B.I.G. on the night he was killed during a Los Angeles drive-by shooting in March of 1997, saying “I don’t even want to say this out loud ’cause it’s like a terrible jinx. I met Biggie four hours before he got killed.”
“The Biggie one made me cry,” Smith shared, because he remembers their conversation being “stupid” and “centered on Hip-Hop.” His death, “for rapping,” he says, “hurt me. It scared me too.”
Listen to the full Broken Record podcast episode with Will Smith now streaming -- Plus, follow along with Prince Radio, Philly Or Bust, and more on the free Audacy app.