Grammys 2023: Will Smith Was Supposed to Be a Part of the Hip-Hop Tribute
The 2023 Grammy Awards featured a celebration of hip-hop ahead of the genre’s 50th birthday in 2023. Rappers young and old came together to perform hit hip-hop songs and get the crowd at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena (and the millions watching at home) on their feet. One former rapper who was slated to be a part of the tribute but was notably absent was Grammy Award winner Will Smith.
The 2023 Grammy Awards featured a tribute to hip-hop for its 50th birthday
Hip-hop historians trace the birth of hip-hop to a house party in the Bronx on Aug. 11, 1973. Several tributes and performances have taken place in the lead-up to the big date, including the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, which was an homage to the genre with some of its biggest players taking the stage together: Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and 50 Cent.
The 2023 Grammy Awards marked the occasion with a massive tribute performance featuring hip-hop songs from the past five decades and artists from every era coming together to perform their music. The performers included Big Boi, Black Thought, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Missy Elliott, GloRilla, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Melle Mel, The Furious Five, Public Enemy, Ice-T, Lil Baby, Lil Uzi Vert, The Lox, Method Man, Nelly, Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Rahiem, Rakim, Run-D.M.C., Salt-N-Pepa, Scarface, Swizz Beatz, and Too $hort.
The 14-minute performance was curated by The Roots drummer Questlove.
Will Smith couldn’t do the Grammys’ hip-hop tribute because he was shooting ‘Bad Boys 4’
While Will Smith’s longtime friend and fellow performer DJ Jazzy Jeff was a part of the tribute, Questlove revealed that Will Smith was also poised to be a part of the performance, but ultimately had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts surrounding Bad Boys 4, the latest entry in his successful Bad Boys film franchise.
“I’ll give the spoiler alert away. Will Smith was a part of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting Bad Boys 4 this week,” Questlove told Variety. “There were a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will.”
“He was literally 99.44% in, but they started shooting Bad Boys 4 this week, so he couldn’t make rehearsals,” he explained to Entertainment Tonight.
Coincidentally, Questlove took the stage at the 2022 Academy Awards minutes after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock — and was unaware for several minutes that it had happened.
Will Smith’s life since his slap of Chris Rock
Smith has been in the process of returning to the spotlight since his infamous slap of Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards in March of last year. His first time back on screen since the incident was in the film Emancipation where he played Whipped Peter a.k.a. Gordon, an enslaved man whose scarred back became one of the most polarizing images of the abolitionist movement.
Smith, for his part, is thrilled to be reuniting with Martin Lawrence for the fourth film in their beloved Bad Boys series. “It’s about that time,” the King Richard star captioned an Instagram post of him pulling up to Lawrence’s house with “Shake Ya Tailfeather” from the Bad Boys II soundtrack playing in his car.
