Will (a Memoir) by Will Smith

Starts with the infamous wall story – “There is no wall. There are only bricks. Your job is to lay this brick perfectly. Then move on to the next brick. Then lay that brick perfectly. Then the next one. Don’t be worrying about no wall. Your only concern is one brick.”

His Daddio:
Was very military like which he got from serving so one minute he’s disciplined and organised, until alcohol is involved and everything goes the other way with domestic violence. This made Will hyper-vigilant to a point they could know his dad’s mood from the way the keys were handled to open the door. Was prolific in the kerosene heater business and later ice and air-conditioning business where Daddio got all the kids in the neighborhood being constructive and working for him. Daddio was always present for his children’s performances or activities. His Dad got the neighborhood kids involved in his business of selling ice. Will used to go dumpster diving with Daddio dumpster in shopping malls and clear rats out of the way, sometimes half rats because the other half was missing from poison. The one time he beat his dad at Chess was the last time and he was so scared to checkmate his dad but his dad told him to stop beating around the bush.

Hi Mom:
Was very focused on being articulate and saying words that improve silence.

Will:
Used to get bullied and beaten, wore strange clothes, had imaginative stories that he claims were not over exaggeration and lies even though people said they needed to water down his stories to get close to the truth. His imaginary friend, Magiker, was never to be seen after an act of cowardice with sexual predator about to do something to a girl.

When all the kids agreed to the get fad mountain bike all at the same time, Will waited for everyone then came out with his chopper. The book has a few performances like that of a pastor. He wanted to move people just like the pastor did.

His Grandma gave him unconditional love and listened to everything with love and him playing piano just to make her happy.

Laughter was safety and Will was a fawn learning the balance between black and white people comedy. More on the flight, fright, freeze and fawn trauma/stress responses here. He knew as long as he kept his dad laughing or busy with the video camera his dad was distracted enough not to create dramas, get drunk or beat his mom.

When his Mom left, it was the first of a few times he had suicidal thoughts. Then his bro left because of usual dramas and he was crushed.

Back when will was starting and Hip hop was new you only got to hear a song when people recorded them at the so called concerts in their giant boombox and copied mixtapes to circulate. His hero and rapping style was copied off Grandmaster Caz.

He calls himself a Natural born killer MC.

Story of how his arrogance got him knocked out with a padlock in a black school and how the perp ended up losing his education and that’s not good for black youth. All he wanted to do was freestyle and battle.

Paul, who was a big influence in his life from being cook and kicking butt was gone because of an incident and his mom comes back to live with dad.

Jazzy Jeff described as this introvert geek with lymphoma who did nothing but DJ in his basement. Will Smith claims that Jeff invented the transformer scratch but there is history behind it.

Dana Goodman helped them start their first footings in the business of rap and music but they didn’t even read the contract. Dana helped them make a record but it wasn’t moving until they had an opportunity but needed a fax machine. JL had a fax machine so he became their manager.

He decided to drop out but didn’t know how to tell his mom who was adamant on education. His dad got them to agree that in one year if Will doesn’t make it then he goes back.

Nice build up to his story of how his song ended up being number one on power hip-hop on radio.

Jazz (I know Jazzy Jeff as Jazz so that’s what I’m calling him) had serious anxiety leaving Philly.

Charlie Mac became their security from selling drugs. He could sense trouble before it happened. They were getting big and the guys were having groupies which Will forbade because he was getting serious with Melanie.

Performing with Public Enemy while they pretended hanging KKK member on stage. 2 Live Crew’s Uncle Luke was good with business and broadcast radio from a boat so they’re not violating and laws of the land.

At some point he got interest from Russel Simmons and they said they’re ok with JL but not Dana. Luckily they found out that the contract was signed while they were still too young so they got freedom. Dana wasn’t happy so he went to Will’s house with a gun but his dad told him that he’d have to kill the whole family and that would not be good on him.

Jazz had an accident but insisted on going to London for recording and the routine was the same 4pm to 6am for 6 weeks. At some point they tried to cut Jazz’s cast with 6 butter knives but things ended up worse until someone with brains helped them.

They released Hip hops first double album which went number 4 and triple platinum.

He bought his granny an appartment, Melanie cheated on him, mother kicked dad out one last time. To deal with all that he got into promiscuity but it didn’t suit him and it made him gag or sick like that.

He used to hang out with the JBM (Junior Black Mafia) shooting pool in his house and all. The leader, Bucky, liked Will for his silly jokes and all but once dissed Bucky about his height which was a sensitive point and got put in his place. At some point Will bet Bucky his car over a pool game and won but gave it back to Bucky which really touched the gangster so had his back since then.

Will, Jazz and crew got an opportunity to record at the state of the art studio in Jamaica where all the big names recorded and they blew their chance over just messing around and eating until JL called Will’s dad over to get their asses in line.

He started having trouble with his beatboxer Ready Rock C and C would not come up on stage so Will stopped calling him. He started just tagging along the tour bus until things had to change when he started clicking around a semi-automatic.

The next album flopped, they were losing fame and getting frozen from going in through back entrances. He never paid his tax which was another issue and at some point Melanie walked too.

His interview with Mimi Brown was going well until Dana returned to the picture and at some point Charlie Mac had to knock a brother out and Will smith ended up in prison because of the master slave clause. At some point a friend who was a cop, Reggie, showed up at Will’s house trying to get him to snitch on Bucky but got nowhere. He warned Will about the JBM getting some visitors soon. Will needed to get away and he could only call Bucky, Bucky gave him 10K and Will split to LA and Bucky was shot dead a week later.

Tanya pushed Will to get out there, get his act together and ended up schmoozing at Arsinio Hall events where he met Benny who gave him an acting lead and invited him to Quincy Jones’ birthday party. Quincy wants Will to perform for Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in front of everyone on his birthday. Everyone who needs to see and approve of Will’s part is there. Give Will a lecture and motivational. His main phrase being ‘paralysis by analysis’ while he gets others lawyers present to draw up all the paperwork etc. Will talking about ‘move the rock and let the miracle happen’ from granny’s lessons. JL and Jazz weren’t keen on moving but he convinced JL to do some short visits and then later getting Jazz for parts in the show.

Fun fact: Whenever Jazz wears that one shirt you know he’s going to get thrown out in the show.

So one episode takes 5 days to make. Day 1 table read, 2-3 for rewrites etc, 4 I think was rehearsals and 5 for the main performance. I love knowing things like this! All apart from Will were pure breed actors and performers so they would entertain the audience between scene changes and takes. At some point a well known thug tried to get ‘some of that Fresh Prince money’ but luckily JL is cool and clever. He’s like you’ll have to discuss it with my partner who is in the FBI. BOOM! At some point Will changed the lines to his script and they were called in with a meeting with the executive who rubbed people the wrong way and Will and JL thought they were being physically threatened by an over 60 with back problems. Will goes gangsta on him but not violent. Issue solved.

Story of how Summertime was written through the powers of psychography because he was dead tired and wasn’t in the mood until he had nothing better to do than to listen to the track and ended up writing his raps and rapping with an already worn out voice and all.

Will’s inattentive blindness is visible in the episode with Don Cheadle where he’s mouthing lines. James Avery gives him a lot of good advice especially when he chokes and that very moving absent father scene. At some point JL was like too much going on what do you want to be and Will just blurted the greatest movie star. So JL the mastermind looked at the patterns. Top 10 movies were action, sci-fi so 8 were romantic, top 9 were this and that. Until they figured it out.

He ended up marrying Sherree by now and having Trey (named so because he was the 3rd Willard in the family), she took charge of making the house warm and inviting and taking care of Will’s friends and affairs. JL gets will to turn down stereotypical roles until 6 Degrees of Separation came. It paid way less but was the perfect one and got Will into method acting so much that he stopped being Will Smith. Will claims this is what initially started the distance with Sheree and he started relearning to be Fresh Prince as even the other actors were like who is this?

Will promised Slice 1K to come cut his hair but Sheree didn’t give him all the money because she had mouths to feed and that created a big issue where will said the nastiest thing to her and things never got better. Around the same time he had a moment with Jada where they got lost in their own world and being able to talk about anything. He realised he was in love but promised never to leave his wife but then the wife gave him divorce papers. He called Jada, tells her that they are seeing each other now and she had left Hollywood to buy a farmhouse but as soon as he told her that she moved back to LA.

Story of Grandma Gigi coming to meet Jada and Will timing the Jason’s Lyric love making scene just in time for Jada to enter the house while Granny was watching it. Will always felt insecure with Tupac and Jada’s relationship and even though they never talked Will felt he won when he got Jada.

Martin Lawrence calls Will about Bad Boys and after throwing the whole script and starting again they got something. Will and Michael Bay were bumping heads over Will running topless until they settled for him running in a shirt and will was ready for it with running training.

Sheree asked Will to reconsider divorce for the sake of children but Jada’s total acceptance of the situation helped him decide to sign the papers.

Independence Day did so well. Will decided season 6 of Fresh Prince will be the finale otherwise they would be doing the thing they call ‘jump the shark’ where Fonzie jumped a shark because the writers were getting desperate for content. Fresh Prince jump the shark moment was when Carlton decided to carry a gun because Will got shot.

He keeps saying ‘We loved on each other’ which just sounds dodgy to me.

After 20 years his mom decided to sign divorce papers which meant his Dad owed like 140K in child support backpay. Will ended up paying his mom for his own child support.

At some point he met the 3 Magi (Arnold, Sly and Bruce) and his audacity to step to them is why Arnold gave him an answer to being a superstar… be a worldwide name! So he went around the world and tried to copy Tom Cruise’s program but couldn’t so ended up doing performances outside his promo places for those who couldn’t afford to come in.
Story of Jada predicting pregnancy and crying. Jaden’s birthday is the ‘miracle preganancy’. Her thoughts on marriage and monogamy were unconventional and Gammy wanted a wedding so she agreed only if Gammy planned it and she just came and did what needs to be done so they call it Gammy’s wedding.

He had already done a MiB stlye movie and didn’t want to be stuck in that role until Speilberg called to find a solution. Because of the movie successes the 4th of July became Big Willie weekend. Omar suggested making a track for Men in Black also and they blew up everywhere. They release big Willie style straight after and that makes waves.

Willow’s birth. They asked Trey to name Jaden and he was so distracted with Mario Bros. that he picked Luigi funny quote ‘have you ever heard of a n***** named Luigi?’. Things started getting hard with keeping 2 families together especially when Jada’s side was in the spotlight and all while Sheree/Trey were left out.

Will buy’s a dream home like Dallas having the whole area with a name Southfork, Jada was not into it especially the maintenance. Another drama was with Jada being petty during therapy because Will put himself first on his list while she put the children.

Getting Jiggy It was blowing up while custody battles started for Trey. Even though Daddio’s advice was to stay quiet until 13. Lots of resentment from Trey’s side and Will hard to work hard on the relationship.

Ellen text that mom was in Turkey and because of diabetes amputation of ankle was necessary. Mom was like do it, I’m not going to have a leg in a few months anyway. An earthquake hit the same hospital so if they waited that long it would be more than amputation.

He was more than reluctant to do Ali until meeting the main man. Then started real fight training, meeting Nelson Mandela, so many peoples lives intertwined. There was a Mozambican vs South African crew beef and a Mozambican head ended up in a toilet. This meant Will send the South African racist crew home of over 100 people crew so Will and Michael Mann paid from their own pocket. Nelson Mandela kept inviting Will to see him but didn’t and ended up being one of his biggest regrets.

His whole team adopted the fight camp philosophy. Everyone was in sync and knew their missions and that is why they moved how they moved and were on top of everything all the time.

Will throwing lavish parties for the family and business on the side so everything seemed ok to him but Jada was having crying spells for weeks. Apparently he studied monopoly from experts, he messes up making it about his winning, Jada makes it about her.

Jada was doing well with her Heavy Metal group. They read women who runs with wolves and the story of La Loba. (Paras note: Big embellished story Big Willy style. You should know he does that throughout and also name dropping intelligent or unique authors and prominent ‘growth personalities’, spiritual or otherwise). She got invited to Ozfest to play with Guns and Roses but couldn’t let Jaden do his first role without his mom. Jaden’s first role was The Pursuit of Happyness where they struggled to find someone to play Will’s son. Jaden put his hand up, the director didn’t want anyone else but the studio made Jaden go for 10 auditions and the whole conflict of interest story. Jada had enough so she said Jaden is not available anymore. Stars aligned and he got the role.

Paras note: The book is getting like Will himself, started nice and captivating but getting predictable and over exaggerated.

Willow released her hit Whip My Hair and did a concert then told Will ‘I’m finished’ but Will had promised Jay-Z an album and all. She was not doing the album and Will was not registering until Willow went bald he finally got it. Willow is one person who can always get to him where he needs to hear. Once she even jibed him with ‘Daddy has a picture of a family in his mind and it’s not us’.

At some point Trey was questioning Will’s beliefs just because Trey found his moms path.

After Earth – Will made it a family project. So he made things comfortable with table tennis and tents etc. Darrel his training guy was not feeling it and lost it. Will couldn’t tell D his plan so it ended up in estrangement. Will made it more about father son bonding. The movie failed and Jaden took it all. Jaden initially wanted to be an emancipated minor at 15 but decided against it.

Jada’s 40 – Will got grandmother tapes and presentation for her that Jada had not even seen. All kinds of big things from Mary J Blige surprise singing, musicians and paintings etc. Walk through flower arches and pictures of her with family to a presentation of her slave history and past and all that. Jada cancelled plans because she felt it was the biggest show of Will ego. They were shouting the suite down when Willow comes crying telling them to stop shouting. Will retires from trying to make Jada happy and told her to make herself happy if she can.

Will takes a break to hang with his exes husband in Trinidad. Lots of things he’s never done from going places alone, not sleeping in hotels with his crew or having a toothbrush, doing nothing all day which he was very uncomfortable with. He realised he didn’t find peace and happiness unless he was achieving things. He didn’t know how to swim!!! His excuse was made up memories of swimming trauma. He heard of Vipassana and did that in his own house and of course he already made a plan to beat the 10 days his friend did. Reading on meditation, getting creative, losing his mind, vivid dreams. My own Vipassana experience was similar.

Meeting Michaela Boehm for therapy and tantra, etc. She led Will’s imaginary harem and guided him to pick exquisite and diverse women. By the time she finished he didn’t want a harem. She referred to his nice guy persona as Uncle Fluffy while the opposite as The General who would do what it takes if Uncle Fluffy doesn’t get it done. He needed to stop saying yes to any fans or being ice cold when The General shows up. He felt so bad when he said no to a fan with a disabled family member. Michaela was with him for 2 years to explore, examine, explain and ex this and ex that. She forced him to learn swimming in the ocean, The Big She.

Veronica introduced him to Ayahuasca. He met his child, he named him Zion, he healed. After over 10 times of doing it the mother Aya told him the same thing every time. Stop talking. He’ll get more done in less time. Paras note: It’s funny because he’s been talking all this time.

After 2 heart attacks his dad told the doctor they can pick either drinking or smoking for him to stop as he won’t do both. They picked drinking because of his medicine profile. The family had to get used to the fact that he is going to die soon. His dad lived weeks longer than predicted but the day he knew he told Will that it would be that night. They said their goodnights.

Talks about how him and Jada healed their relationship and give each other unconditional love. Story of Alfonso announcing Will’s bungee jump from a helicopter over the Grand Canyon as he turns 50 and his purpose to face his fears. Ends with Joyner Lucas’ rap remix dedicated to Will under the same.

Table of Contents

The Wall