A tax debt pushed Will Smith from rap stardom into acting
By his early twenties Will Smith had a Grammy and a hit rap career, and he spent freely. He also underpaid his taxes. The IRS assessed a 2.8 million dollar debt, seized many of his belongings and garnished his earnings. He was struggling in 1990 when NBC built a sitcom around him.
That show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, cast him as a fictional version of himself and launched a second career. Smith then set himself an explicit target, to become the biggest movie star in the world, and studied what the top-grossing films had in common. Bad Boys in 1995, Independence Day in 1996 and Men in Black in 1997 followed, the last earning over 589 million dollars against a 90 million budget. His films as a lead have since grossed more than 10 billion dollars worldwide.
The music career itself began by luck. Born in Philadelphia on September 25, 1968, Smith was rapping by age 12. In 1985 a DJ named Jeffrey Townes was playing a house party a few doors from Smith's home without his hype man, so Smith jumped in. The pair clicked, and Townes was reportedly annoyed when his regular partner finally showed up. As DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince they had a hit single a month before Smith finished high school, and in 1989 they won the very first Grammy for best rap performance.
Their style was unusually clean for hip-hop, and that traced back to his grandmother. When she found a notebook of his lyrics full of swearing, she wrote inside it that truly intelligent people have no need for such words and urged him to prove how smart he was. Smith said the note shaped his choice to keep profanity out of his music, which favoured funny storytelling raps instead.
Smith went on to earn best actor nominations for playing Muhammad Ali and Chris Gardner, and won the Academy Award for portraying Richard Williams in King Richard.
Source: Will Smith
