Thursday, November 13, 2025
Time: 6:07 AM
Song: Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It
Artist: Will Smith
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle while working out.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/0weAUscowxeqDtpCgtbpgp?si=83e80953fccc4c3d
I used to think that no matter how big Will Smith got in the acting industry or the music industry, everyone would always think of him as “The Fresh Prince.”
It’s how we were introduced to Smith, a family-friendly young man with bright clothes and a cute rap jingle.
Then he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, and it’s like, hmmm, is that the Will Smith we will remember now?
That’s what’s going through my mind. For that matter, I wonder if that’s what we will remember most about Chris Rock. Two guys with heydays in the 1990s, souring their legacies with a skirmish in the 2020s.
I am struggling through exercises after spending Wednesday night hauling records up the basement steps. I didn’t count the number of crates or trips up the stairs; my physical fitness heyday was about the same time that Smith was releasing “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It.”
In those crates are hundreds of artists, whose heydays range from the 1930s to the 1980s, mostly. Some of those artists still maintain a fair share of fame. Bruce Springsteen still tours, filling arenas. Elvis still gets sightings nearly fifty years after his death. Johnny Cash is probably my best seller.
Other artists are remembered by the oldest members of the world, but most of those aging folks aren’t looking to add to their music collections. In fact, most of them probably snicker while thinking about who is going to sort through all their stuff that they will relatively soon leave behind.
Some artists in these crates no longer have much identity left at all among the current living. Their legacies are lost to only those that really study music or crave random vinyl.
Some probably had
exploits that their souls are glad are forgotten. None of them probably slapped
someone on the stage of any awards show.
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