Tim Westwood dug in the archives for this clip of Will Smith, which dates back to European DJ’s ’80s late night TV show N-Sign Radio that broadcasted Fridays on the UK’s ITV Network. The footage stands at just over four minutes, showing The Fresh Prince pre-superstardom discussing how he connected with partner in crime DJ Jazzy Jeff.
“About three years ago this guy named Jazzy Jeff, and in Philadelphia Jazzy Jeff was thee name, thee DJ,” Smith reminisces. “So I was just coming up, and everybody was like ‘Hey, you’re pretty good. You’re one of the best I’ve heard. Maybe you should get with this Jazzy Jeff guy.'”
“So Jeff stole one of the jobs I was supposed to have on my block. I was supposed to do a house party on my block for $35 dollars, which is about 17 pounds or something like that I guess. Jeff stole my job.”
As the story goes, Will Smith connected with Jazzy Jeff at the party, and they immediately clicked. The duo would go on to create 5 albums, including the classic He’s the Rapper, I’m the DJ.
If anything, the footage adds context to just how far both Will Smith and Tim Westwood have come since the early days of Hip-Hop. We’re guessing that Smith charges a lot more than 35 bones for anything these days. See the full visual for yourself below.
http://www.springboardplatform.com/js/overlay
—
Photo: YouTube
