If you look at the Will Smith of say, Ali or After Earth, then time travel a bit back to his days as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, pal of DJ Jazzy Jeff, brother of Calrton, you might not even be able to tell they’re the same person. Gone are the neon ball caps, the giant sneakers, the bizarre bling, and the baggy clothes. He doesn’t even rap anymore, which is a bummer, because Big Willie Style was a killer album.
But before the smash-hit success of tracks like “Miami” and “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” Smith was just some broke-ass kid from Philadelphia whose mommy sent him to live in the snazzy Bel-Air suburbs with his aunt and uncle. And each week, we got to live that dream with him on the show: collectively making fun of Carlton, shaking our heads at Will’s hare-brained schemes, and wishing we had a sweet butler like Geoffrey who could help us out with life stuff.
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The theme song, rapped by Smith, of course, was instantly recognizable when you walked into your house after school and the t.v. was on. So the people at cdza put together a band to play the tune, then got the guy rapping it to sing the lyrics as translated through different combinations of languages with Google Translate. Eventually, they get to putting the words through every language on the program, and the results are pretty bizarre.
Enjoy this strange, skewed memory of the ’90s.
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Matt Williams is a Winnipeg-based writer and musician. Follow him on Twitter @WaterInHell .
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