The jiggy is back.
After the slap that shook the Academy Awards in 2022, Will Smith got his rap groove back at the BET Awards on Sunday night.
The 53-year-old Oscar and Grammy winner performed his new single “You Can Make It,” a gospel-charged testimony — featuring Haitian-American singer Fridayy and the Sunday Service Choir — that was released on Friday.
The performance marked the first time Smith appeared at an awards show since he infamously slapped comedian Chris Rock across the face for a joke at the expense of Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
“The darker the hell you gotta endure/The brighter the heaven you get to enjoy/The harder the fall, the higher you soar/God opens a window when the devil closes the door,” raps Smith, sounding more like the Fresh Preacher.
“Believe me, they tried to bleed Will Smith/In the rearview, I see adversity was the gift/To lift me higher gifts require faith/So dry your eyes and then you’ll find the way,” he continues over the take-you-to-church arrangement.
It all continues the Oscar Slapgate redemption tour that Smith has been on since “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” opened to boffo box office on June 7, reestablishing the actor as a bankable movie star.
But now, the “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” MC is looking to regain the music cred that led DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince to receive the first Grammy for Best Rap Performance in 1989.
Smith wasn’t the only rap icon to take the stage at the 2024 BET Awards: Ms. Lauryn Hill celebrated the 25th anniversary of her Album of the Year Grammy win for her 1998 classic “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”
Also performing at the show — hosted for the fourth time by Taraji P. Henson — were Megan Thee Stallion, Ice Spice, Latto, Victoria Monét, Shaboozey, Tyla and Glorilla.