Will Smith Believed Eminem Would Either Flop Or Be The Biggest Thing

Will Smith goes way back in Hip Hop. He started dropping rap albums with DJ Jazzy Jeff in the late 80s, before doing his TV/Movie thing full-time, and then coming back to rap on and off. In a recent interview, DJ Jazzy Jeff spoke about Will Smith's reaction the first time he heard Eminem rap back in 1996. He said Will believed that Eminem would either be the biggest flop in Hip Hop, or he would be the biggest thing we've ever seen in hip hop. I guess Will Smith was right in a way.







 "I was a big fan of Eminem's—you know, especially of his super early stuff. I just kinda reached out to him, 'Yo man, big fan. Would love to do some stuff.' And he ended up comin' to Philly and we went in the studio, and just knocked out some stuff. It was crazy, because that was one of the times that Will [Smith] was in town. Will walked into the room, and I think I played Will 'Just The Two Of Us' .Will listened to it, and Will looked at him and said, 'You're either gonna be the biggest flop in Hip Hop, or you're gonna be the biggest thing that we've ever seen in Hip Hop. And Eminem never forgot that. It was so outrageous. You're gonna be the biggest flop, because I guess people are just gonna think you're so crazy. Or you're just a super genius'—and the super genius part really paid off."






The 'Just The Two Of Us' song was on Eminem's 1997 EP, The Slim Shady EP. And it also appears on his Aftermath debut album (The Slim Shady LP- 1999) as 97 Bonnie & Clyde. It's a really sick song; Eminem raps about killing his wife, putting her dead body in the trunk, and driving around with his daughter, Harley. I guess that's why Will Smith believed Eminem would either be a big flop, or the biggest thing Hip Hop had ever seen...cos no one was really rapping about stuff like that...and for a white boy to be doing hip hop like that was really different to people. I think Dr. Dre's stamp of approval really helped Eminem...it made people of all races accept his music.