Big Willie

I wanted to make a little response to Ervin Berlin's previous post about Will Smith.


-In case you didn't know, Nas has writing credits for lyrics to the single "Big Willie Style" as well as three other tracks on that album. Take a moment to imagine him brushing the blunt ash from his clothes as he wrote arguably the biggest crossover hip-hop hit of the 90's.

-I'm not sure that Will Smith was ever supposed to be a sex symbol. He was always marketed as a rapper and actor that white people could feel incredibly comfortable with. He didn't use profanity, didn't talk about drugs, didn't talk about sex. He was just really charismatic and fly in a non-intimidating way. I don't think there are any overtly sexual references in "Miami", but you're right, maybe those back-up singers are supposed to add some sexxappeal.

-For the record I owned DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's fourth album Homebase as a child. My favorite song was "You Saw My Blinker". Wikipedia tells me it's one of the only two songs on the record that uses a curse word. I really liked it because of that curse word. The song tells the story of a woman who crashes into Big Willie's car as he's driving. The chorus goes "You Saw My Blinker, Bitch!"

-I'm also really all about the song Summertime, despite the incredibly canned video. Hidden Beach Recordings do a great RnB cover of it, which I would post but I've only got it on vinyl. Also here's a pretty great remix of it by UK producer Yam Who? . Play it at your cookout.

Ain't No Stoppin' Summertime (A Yam Who? Remix) - Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince