Will Smith didn’t hold back during a surprise freestyle on Charlie Sloth’s “Fire in the Booth” earlier this week in the U.K., dropping some scathing bars that appear to take direct aim at Chris Rock and the infamous Oscars slap.
The rapper-turned-actor delivered a sharp verse that referenced the 2022 Academy Awards incident without naming names.
“If you talking crazy out your face up on the stage and disrespect me on the stage, expect me on the stage,” he rhymed before following up with, “Jokers dish it out, cry out when it’s time to take it, City full of real ones wasn’t raised to fake it.”
The freestyle isn’t the first time Smith has addressed the Oscars drama through music. He also referenced the controversy on his latest project, Based On A True Story.
The moment in question happened during the 94th Academy Awards in March 2022, when Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.
Smith walked on stage, slapped Rock, and yelled, “Keep my wife’s name out your f**king mouth!”
Will Smith Reflects On Chris Rock Drama
Earlier this month, Smith opened up about the emotional toll the incident took on him during an interview with BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Remi Burgz.
“The last few years for me have been really deep reflection,” he said. “After the Oscars, I shut it down for a minute and really went into the internal work and just taking a big, strong, honest look at myself.”
He added, “For the first time in my career, (I was) having to deal with a level of disapproval that I never had to experience. The addiction to the approval of others that I had to dissolve, it was brutal.”
Smith also reflected on how the slap forced him to confront parts of himself he hadn’t previously explored.
“It was just like there was a manhole cover over some unexplored areas and the manhole cover came off,” he explained. “It was scary for a minute what was in there.”