Questlove Supreme: Will Smith

Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio, Man, I.

Better make the Central special, right, Okay, ladies and gentlemen, everybody's searching for a hero.

People need someone to look up Tom.

No, actually to be Frank, our guest is a true hero. There's literally no human being on earth who has not heard of our guest. Like, seriously, you don't even need to hear my voice anymore. But just for for now, these success we can go hip Hop Legend, the first hip Hop Grammy winner, Sticom Legend, or one of the most beloved important family shows in TV history.

A Golden Globe winner.

Yes, oh yeah, that's new. We're new.

We're now skipping. You didn't think that that was online now I'm playing.

No, But seriously, like, let's let's not take it lightly that he has been a premier action hero, one of the most highest paid actors. I believe seventeen of his films that grows past at least combined eight billion dollars, which is nothing to scoff that. You know, when I say this man has his own money, I mean he has his own money. No, seriously, I swear to God, I'll put it this way.

Steve, you remember my infamous rat story, the.

One I heard a thousand times.

Yeah, I think I can remember it.

Right, So before before you came in the picture, I will say, even his foot even the footnotes of his life become other people's highlights. And I mean he invited me to the Millennial back in nineteen ninety nine, December thirty first.

I'm sure he doesn't remember about that, Yes, right, exactly.

Inaugurations.

Do you know how many times I've told the story of Mary Tyler Moore running over Liz Taylor's Wilcha or my Jordan or my corns.

That was my original rat story.

Anyway, I can.

I can talk and talk, talk, talk about achievements until the counts come home. But literally what hit home for me personally was his really brave, rigorous act of complete honesty and vulnerability, which is a word you don't often hear, especially in the black community. And his book will amongst other things that he's achieved. This intro is now ninety minutes long, and the show's over. Ladies and gentlemen, please.

Welcome Bill Smith.

Bring. Yes, there you go.

Yes, you're like, wait, have you set up lights in your apartment?

Huh? Yeah?

Were you set up lights right now here.

So here's the thing. Here's the thing.

I took this interview seriously right.

No, this is the cleanest zoom display I've ever seen in my life.

I'm very ashamed right now.

I was like, it's my man. You know, he asked me to you know, to come on. It's Philly.

It's all of that. It's like I got to make you know, I don't know what he needs, what he wants to use, Like I want to be I want to represent properly.

I want to It's just audio, bro, you could have been on the couch anyway.

So actually I want to start off and I'm I'm gonna go against format and just sort of make this a free round for everyone on the show, all of us here.

Hello, Team Supreme. By the way, let's go anyway.

So I want to know what did you do this morning?

Me or Team Supreme tell you.

I'm just curious what your average warning is like nowadays.

So I usually I wake up about four am. So so like four to six is my private quiet time, like no phone, no nothing, I think, I meditate, I read. It is like my favorite time of the day that there there's very few days I'm not awake at four AM and four to six is how I get just centered and clear about what I'm going to do in the course of a day. And some days I'll go I'll go back to sleep from six to seven point

Start my day. See, I already feel like I'm doing this wrong because no, because Grace told me, like, Grace's time is five am. And that's the one promise that I sort of like backtracked on, you know, Yes, we'll get up together at five a m. And you know, and then I went back to my normal ten am routine.

Ah.

Man, man, you can't underestimate the power of watching the sun rise. There's something that that energizes a human body about seeing the sun rise.

It like wakes you up with it.

It's like you get in sync with with like how the world is moving.

How long has that been a practice for you, Probably.

About three years it started happening.

I'm not a big sleeper. I'm I rarely, if.

Ever sleep for you know, five hours straight, really, you know, yeah, rarely, rarely, you know, I'll sleep for four hours, up for a couple hours, and then sleep for three hours three more hours like, but very rarely will I sleep. I never sleep eight right, I'll sleep a combination of four up for a couple hours and then back for four, but never eight hours straight.

Okay, So can I ask you nowhere? That's where I have excelled in life. Do you feel like you've slept eight hours or more? Do you feel like you wasted the day? And I know from reading your book, I know that for you, the idea of hard work, performative hard work is like job one. So letting the idea of that go. I'll give you an example. This Saturday, I've never gotten up at two in the afternoon. I slept for fifteen hours. Yeah, I've never slept for fifteen

What the fuck? Yeah? And she let me sleep.

For fifteen hours, like for you, is sleeping eight hours?

Like that's a wasted I could have saved world in the last hour.

I used to I used to feel like that. It used to feel like, you know, I didn't want to be sleep. I always felt like I was Yeah, yeah, that was a Quincy Jones joint. You know, boy, you have enough time to sleep when you did, you know, so.

So I prefer like I'll I take naps, right, you know, I'll.

Lay down for thirty minutes at lunch, you know, and you know, get a get a third, and I can I'll be refreshed the thirty thirty minute nap at lunch.

I'm like, really refreshed. But I don't like.

The feeling of sleeping all the way through in that way. But every couple of months, I'll definitely get one of those fifteen hour jones. Like you know, if you do that every couple of months, i'll get that full day where you just shut it down and return that sleep debt. But that that four to six practice is a new thing. I wouldn't miss that for anything like that up and the whole world belongs to me, and it's private and it's quiet. It's like that's when I do my best thinking.

And you're still able to do that while you're taping movies and stuff too, while you're shooting.

Yeah, so usually with a movie, if if I have an early call, it works perfectly because I'm up a couple hours before anyway, and I'll just continue my day.

And usually on those.

Kind of days, I'll sleep at lunch, I take a nap at least.

What does a meditation look like to you? Because we talk about meditation a lot on this show.

What does it mean to you?

The big thing for me with meditation is no pressure. I don't pressure myself to.

Do anything but just watch my mind to just be aware of all of the things that are coming up to just notice.

Damn.

I hate meditating today, right, and I just I kind of I take the time to just notice what's going on with my mind.

I don't wrestle with it. I let it. I let it do what it do.

Baby, do you do trans meditation?

No, I don't. I don't go that far like I.

You know I have you know, you read the book, so you know I've done ayahuasca and things like that. Which is you know it's a form that you know for me, that's a form of meditation.

I didn't read it. Can you just tell me, man, don't.

Spoil it, you don't.

I don't want you to spoil it.

I'm so curious.

I was gonna I was gonna tell you, Will I am what did I hit you the last time? I was telling you that I was waiting for this very specific I wanted my first ayahuasca journey to be with this African couple that.

That does it.

And a funny thing happened to them, which is they were now.

Like, you know what's happening.

This Will Smith book has just come out and suddenly we're in the mid So now I.

Gotta ia, peyote, mushrooms, all family.

Right, So I ayahuasca is really really different.

So you know the the the the scene in Black Panther right where he goes to ancestral plane. Yet ancestral plane, right, So that's the African that's taken from the African version of ayahuasca uh Eboga.

Right.

So it is as vivid as they depicted in the movie. You you like, actually go meet, see talk to people, you come back right like that's the movie is not an exaggeration.

Of what the experience is. Wow. Right.

The only the only thing that was was uh potentially a little bit of of an exaggeration is the directing of the experienced.

The it takes you where it wants to take you. You don't get to like pick.

Maybe at higher levels people can pick, right, but yeah, I never got to pick.

I got dragged right, So what did to drag you into?

Who did you get to talk to? Did you need to talk to any people from your past or whatever?

My father came to me, you know, So that's what I was saying. So I had that experience my father. He came to me and showed me where he was living.

You know, I will say to you laya that sort of on that path. I think the lightest version of it is, well, there are sound journeys you can take. For some people step up from that is sound journeys with mushrooms.

Some people do idahwasta.

Mike Tyson talks about doing toad, which is even more yeah, yeah, extreme, But basically it's almost like you should really be open for me at least in trying to heal like a lot of the childhood trauma. First of all, I mean there's literally no human alive, especially black human that has not dealt with trauma, real trauma. And for I think for a lot of us, we sort of normalized the trauma, like I normalized like, well, yeah, Dad's supposed to be

Highest form of the highest form of abuse and really like damnit.

So I mean as a result, right, but that's the thing, like, as black people, a lot of what we hold on to for how we were reared, it comes from slavery and that's sort of the one aspect that we can't let go, which for me, at least in reading Will's book, the reason why I say, like the vulnerability and the honesty is really unprecedented, especially like I really want black people and I know, like people are you know, attracted to the fact that, like, you know, everything that's happened

Three hundred years exactly you couldn't laugh.

And if you you know the reason why they invented the terminology barrels.

Of laughs was because slaves are built a barrel full of water.

So if you felt yourself about the laugh on the plantation, instead of meeting the ire and the anger of.

The overseer, you would dunk your head in the water to suppress the sound. Same for anger. Who you assassin, that who you're getting smart with?

You better not cry if I give you something to cry about, like all those things that we attribute to black parents, like all that shit came from slavery, so we literally could not show emotions it.

Was illegal or else you faced flashes.

And as a result, I think the defensive thing that we invented, like the same way we invented soul food out of the worst food ever, Black people invent it cool cool as a defensive mechanism like not showing, not showing emotions, not being too affected, holding back, not not not drawing, you know what I mean, And as a result, it's really damaged us. Like if you really think about, the last black person that I saw really on display of this vulnerability was the last thirty seconds of She's

You know, I give them three stooges.

Where they do the army thing and like who's the first to volunteer? And everyone steps backwards and leaves, like seriously, like every one in my life's like, yo, we can't wait till you stop writing these bullshit as music books and really no, no, for real, It's like you know, every people were like, yo, no more music books, Like tell us some real.

Shit about your life.

And literally, when Will's book came out, I felt like, okay, maybe it is safe across the street a little bit without getting run over. So why did you feel like now is the time to really share your story and to be as honest and open about it?

Yeah? I think I'm sure you all have been watching me publicly for the for the last thirty years.

Yeah, I mean, come on, you know, I think first and foremost, I can feel the wave coming right, So there's a there's a consciousness shift that is happening right now, right so, so a.

Couple of things are happening.

More people are realizing that there is no happiness to be derived from any material conditions that you can put together. Right. People are starting to realize that at no matter how great your job is, no matter how great your family is, no matter no matter how perfectly you cultivate your material conditions, they are unsustainable.

You you have.

A perfect marriage and family, and then there's a storm and three people in your family get killed.

COVID and shuts down and you lose it. Shuts it down.

Right, So people are realizing that material circumstances are unsustainable.

Right.

So if that's the case, if it's the case that I can lose anything, how can I possibly enjoy my time here?

Right? And more people are waking up slowly to that idea.

And people are starting to realize that you are the only problem you have to solve, right, that your your mind and.

How you are with this world is the answer.

Right, How to be with your circumstances is the answer, not trying to get your circumstances perfect. Right, Okay, So, and I'm this is this is the first time I've been asked this question this way. So I'm struggling to like to to to to say it right. This is the first time you've been asked this question in this way. So I'm not like I've never been asked a question. The answer I want to give, I'm trying to form it in my mind right now.

Right.

So, the the the realization that I that I had is it doesn't matter so much what happens to me. It doesn't matter what happens in my life. It doesn't matter what happens with my family, It doesn't matter what happens with my career.

Doesn't matter what happens in my.

Life as much as it matters how I think about what happens to me and how I manage myself in interacting what happens to me.

Right, So, the answer that I realized is you can't create loving interactions from unloving behavior. You can't. You can't. You can't. You can't.

You're trying to love and be loved at the deepest part of your being. You want to love and be loved. You can not create it. If you're scared, if you're angry, if you're resentful, if you're hungry and craving, if you're holding any of those poisons in your heart. You can't create what you want. You can only create the opposite of.

What you want, right, man, that's careful.

So all of that to say, I knew that if I was going to be happy, I couldn't be scared of what people were going to say. That I had to thoroughly and comfortably be me just as I am, with no fucks given about what anybody thinks or memes.

So being so to that point, in terms of being you and in writing this book, how did you decide what to tell and what not to tell? You know what I'm saying, and not necessarily in terms of being having any shame about any parts of your life, but just as an artist having that line of saying, listen, these are some parts of myself that I choose to keep to myself. And I have the right to own myself, you know, so as to not let these things define me.

So the only thing I was prepared and still am prepared to say anything and everything that's true for me, because I only get stronger by being vulnerable. I used to think I got weaker by being vulnerable. I only get stronger by being comfortable to share who and what I am freely. The line that I drew is I

You know.

So what I did is when I finished the book, I had what I was calling a writer's camp, and for two weeks I called everybody that I mentioned in the book down to Miami and I read every word of the book to all of the people in the book so they would know what I was saying about them. And then I let them respond and made adjustments and and things like that.

Everybody, Yeah, yeah, it was uh read. It was a first Uh well, there there were a couple of people who declined.

Declined, But it was the first time my mother and I had ever talked about my father being abusive. We literally, I was I was fifty two years old at the time, and my mother and I literally never talked about the fact that my father beat her up, and her hearing me read the chapter was the first time that the conversation came up between us, and you know, it was it was gut wrenching, but it was deeply purifying.

And you know, when I was talking about.

That idea of blocks to love, it's like the fact that my mother and I couldn't talk about that there was a barrier between us, right, and we loved each other, but we weren't really connecting in honesty and authenticity, right, So there's always a little bit of a facade because we both know we're just not going to talk about it. So it just creates a little bit of a barrier. And neither one of us wants that. We want to

In my life, you know. And it's and it's those traumas make us close our hearts.

You know, the worst crime you can commit against another human being is to assassinate them in your heart.

And you know, once your heart is.

Closed to somebody, as nice as you think you're being, as cordial as you pretend to be all I said was yet, right, but you said it with a closed heart, which the person understands clearly that you don't give a fuck about them, right, And it's like you can't hide it.

Right, It's like because you're not you're not showing that you're open to seeing them in a different way.

Right.

You'll be surprised how much your heart is closed to people you say you love, right, And it's like they know it and they can feel it. And sometimes we can't feel it. We think if we treat someone nicely and respectfully that we're being loving, But if your heart is close to them.

It's not.

Behind every word is I really don't give a fuck. And they hear it, right, They hear it no matter what you try to say, and no matter how much you try to cover it up.

All Right, So let me ask you something because I'm this is the one this is probably my major downfall and the journey I'm in right now, Like I'm literally I'm in amazed with my eyes with blinders on. And if I could just figure out this one thing, I

So the fundamental premise is flawed. The fundamental premise that you're safer using your.

Head is wrong. That's not true, right, So.

You can only make an intellectual mess with that fundamental premise.

Right.

So, going all the way back to the beginning, the belief system that has to grow is that the only safety is in your well wishing and the authentic care and concern for whoever's in front of you. You see a samurai kill somebody and then pray over the body the samurai, it's not like, you.

Know, fuck him.

You know that motherfucker shouldn't have been tripping, right, It's like the samurai is prepared to kill. You know that that's what they do, but they spend half their lives learning, you know, the techniques have killed for the purpose of defending people, and then they spend the second half of their life learning how to not have to. You absolutely positively want to be able to defend people, and you want to be able to build, and you want to be able to create, and you want to do all

People are your greatest resource. Yes, it's like why people are your greatest resource.

When people know that you care, right, they give you so much room to make mistakes and stuff like that, and your only responsibility is for people to be able to see in your eyes that you legitimately care, and you might have to make hard decisions, you know, and somebody's mind might be so defiled that they can't respond well, and you got to go samurai, right, But you don't do it joyfully.

You hate that you had to, you know, cut that off, right, you know?

All right, So let me let me ask you a question because for me, like I put myself in almost every situation that you spoke about in the book, but there's one particular situation that I felt that you handled with ease that I otherwise wouldn't have handled. Now only starting maybe three years years ago, really not even three years ago, like two years ago, I finally decided to do something on my own without, you know, the collaborative narrative that I do. You know, everything I've done has

It's Quincy Jones telling me to come out to.

His birthday party, and you're asked to audition in front of all those people at his birthday party, and he happens to have your current lawyer still with you, now I believe like to, you know, draw the papers and make this show happen.

I would have instantly.

Not only thought of millions of reasons to say no, chances are I'm like, thank you very much, but you know, I you know, I have something. I'm going back to Detroit to go back to my group and stay with my group. And I wouldn't have even gotten the freshman's of bel air because I would have instantly, out of obligation, chosen that first step in my career, which is just

Yeah, well, of course is twenty four hours.

Well, we were we were in a really desperate financial situation, right, so like we we were, you know, we had gone from Grammy winners back to one hotel room.

By the way, I hate how, I really hate how you sort of separate yourself from Ann in This Corner, which.

My favorite record. I'm sorry, that's.

That's crazy, but yeah, that that one, that one hurt bad.

I know, I'm not diving you like I feel like. And then she bit me was like, that's one of my favorite Halloween songs ever.

But I like and Jeff was on the beat box I did with that one.

Anyway, there was one, there was one or two. Unfortunately the public did not concur.

But it worked out for you because if Quincy and Benny don't see that performance of Mike Tyson on our sineo.

That's true. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that album still holds heavy for you because that's the moment that changed you know.

Yeah, but I look back at it, I can see I can see the value. Uh, definitely when I when I look back.

Uh.

But to the first question about so, for me, I've never been the kind of person that felt like I had to.

Stay with my friends to be loyal.

I felt like my loyalty was to their growth and expansion.

My loyalty was y'all got to keep up original lebron You're right.

Yeah, you know it's like no, no, no, it's like, yeah, what what what was Robin Harris had a joke, what was it?

What was it you're talking about? Rob When you get Richard famous, you're gonna change you. God damn right, I'm going.

I ain't gonna have no change, change right.

But the idea, the idea is for for me. It's like, we got to climb. None none of us loved our childhoods, none of us loved what our current situations were at the time. Then if that's the case, we gotta climb. We got to grind right.

And it was always painful.

For me when somebody couldn't keep up, but I would much rather keep going and send them some help, then slow down and let them pull us all down right, right. So I've always felt like a responsibility.

To my to my squad.

But we gotta we gotta go right, we gotta climb right. And for me at that time, that that meant no drugs.

Everybody gotta train.

If you if you want to do something different, you can, you just can't do it here, because like we are a crew of dreamers and we want to see how close to the sun we can get, you know, so and and that mentality, you know, you know, Charlie Mack, it was so good to see you.

Charlie and Jeff had at ig conversation mid COVID.

It's funny.

I wasn't suppoed to say this, but I kind of did call Charlie and gets some some cheating things before we.

Did this conversation.

But I wanted you to speak on that friendship between y'all three men, because really that was kind of like the greatest way to see the three of you. I don't think it was no other interview, no big you know, networks, y'all three.

Just busting.

Charlie Mack first out the limo come people.

You know, we talked about that in the IG lib and I talked about it a little bit in the book. It's like Charlie's a dreamer. Charlie's a big giant.

Dreamer, Thank God for it.

Right, you know, Jeff is.

A little more cocooned, right, Like Jeff wants his spot and if everybody agrees to go, Jeff is gonna go, right.

But Jeff climbs in another way. Jeff climbs with talent.

He spends you know, sixteen hours a day behind his turntable, so his climbing was in a different way and you know, jayl who's as my manager, is like one of the most well read people that I've ever met. We gravitated to each other, you know, growing up in Philly, and it was like we were doing the stuff that everybody else was doing, and we was getting into trouble that everybody else was getting into. But we all kind of had our eyes on a different a different future for ourselves.

And you know, your friends are critical.

It's like one bad friend can blow your whole shit in one night. Your will.

Time you gave a speech, I never will forget this. Shout outs to your baby sister, Allen, who's a great woman. I came to a party you through for when the Beckhams came to LA for the first time, and you gave a speech about friendship and why it's so important to be meticulous about friends. Can you just people need to hear that at for a second, because it ain't just Arich and the famous everybody.

It is. You know, there's a couple of quotes I've heard around that, and it's it's.

Attributed to Confucius.

He says, look look at the five people you spend the most time with, and that's who you are.

That's who you are. Yeah, show me who you're with, I'll show you who you are. Yeah.

Right.

And you know I heard that. I was probably eighteen the first time I heard that, and I.

Was like ooh.

It was like, okay, well, if that's the case, then I want.

This one, two, three, you know.

But it's like, who your friends are is is you know, one of the most critical decisions, you know, especially as a teenager, that's one of the most critical decisions that you can make. If the five friends that you associate with are straight A students, you're probably gonna learn how to be a straight A student. If the five friends you associate with carry guns and sell drugs, you're probably gonna end up carrying a gun and selling drugs.

Right.

So it's like, you know, human beings are creatures of an example, and we fall into those lines of who we're with, who you lay down with, who you're who you share at bed with is probably the most important decision you making your life ever make, you know what I mean? Right, So it's like choosing your friends and your closest associates is how you fertilize your dreams. Right, you can't have a life that's better than your associations,

I got admit when I finished the book that part of me felt not quasi deflated, but the fact that I made a decision. I made a decision like maybe two years ago, that Okay, I'm really gonna concentrate and get my thing together. I'm a direct this movie, and I'm gonna go hire and hire and.

Achieve and achieve and earned and achieve and the chief.

And then I know you told the the last six chapters you know is a doozy of the book again, no spoiler words, but you know something happens in September twenty eleven that sort of changes the whole trajectory of your.

Life and whatnot.

And when I read, when I read that you had to take you know, like you had to take in a total assessment of everything that you were and it wasn't about how much you made and how much you you know, how many records you broke or whatnot, and you kind of had to start all over again. Like what I know that that level of achievement and that

Are right now.

Well, for starters, it's almost like, what are your life goals right now?

Because everything else well.

More than that, I think he discovered that none of that matters.

And to me, I actually felt like, oh shit, wait a minute, like I'm trying to win this Oscar so I could do more movies and get more power and get more power and get more money and get more power money. And then I realized, oh man, that's not going to make me happy, because this book is basically like a cheat sheet of you know him five years and two where I want to be right. So for

But what's what's what's the priority now?

So what happened is all of my climbing and all of my achieving and everything that I was trying to build is I was trying to fill an internal hole with external achievements, right, And it's impossible, right, you can't make enough money, you can't have enough sex.

You know, you can't win enough championships.

That to fill a traumatic void inside yourself and my traumatic void.

So you're saying that internally at one point you felt like, well, shit, I made eight point five billion in movies, like I should have did twenty You're.

Right, and that so that's the carrot on the stick that with there there is no end to achieving. There's no end.

It's an infinite there's an infinite amount of money and.

Beautiful women and yachts and right, you know.

So what I realize is that what I was trying to fill is at the end of the day, I didn't like me right, So at the end of the day, I didn't feel good about me, and I needed those things so I could feel good about me, right, And all the way back to being a little boy in chapter one is you know, watching my father beat up my mother and I.

Didn't do anything really.

Got me it really like it really damaged something inside of me. You know the the opening line of the book, You know that I talk about I've always felt like a coward, right, And people would look, well.

Dude, you did this, and you did that, and you did this and all that.

And none of the extra internal stuff fixes your internal impression of yourself.

That initial wound, that initial wound.

Right.

So the journey for me came down to, well, if I don't have all of those things like who am I? If people don't clap with my movie, if people don't cheer.

When I walk in?

What if people booed when I walked in? Would that change who I am?

Right?

And I realized that I had given away my self esteem. It's supposed to be self esteem, but I had given away my self esteem to achievements and to what my woman feels about me, to how other people view me and what they say about me. And I had trapped myself in trying to uphold an image of who I was rather than being who who I really was.

I wasn't comfortable being who.

I really was because I felt like the world would punish me for that. You end up acting in real life, you just.

Pretending, You're just pretending all the time.

Right, So one of the things for me every time I've walked out on the Tonight Show and I hear y'all playing, invariably.

I have a little bit of a little boy.

In security because the roots are the real Philly group.

Philly.

No, don't say this will because literally, no, no, no, no no, this is what I have to say, literally when I'm in any situation that's fearful.

Lately it's been giving speeches.

I hate giving speeches, and the moment, the thing that I think about, you're literally the most confident curtain walker of the Tonight Show.

That like, literally when you.

Like, I know these I know who looks down. There are people that run to the couch because they're so insecure. There are people look down like You're the first person I know that takes a second to walk out. You come out like you know, like you're you're you're in room in the coliseum, like you're ready to con So literally, when I get to my space before before I give any speech whatsoever, I think I literally have to vicariously do a what Wolve Smith.

So please don't even tell me someone as like.

Three time every time I've ever walked out on that show, and I hear y'all playing, I cannot do anything but get myself to get other to try to look cool.

For the Roots.

So you're psyching yourself.

Wow, big Philly shit, y'all.

Literally we're literally here.

Yeah, you always in your poker face, right, So I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you, trying to get to like and you know, you give me the nod and you're right there, and I was like, it's the poker face. He's doing the poker face. I can't that.

The worst one of all was remember the one where I did like the five entrances.

Yes, that's my favorite of all time.

All I could think was you thought I was the corniest motherfucker that has ever walked out on the show.

This is so funny because in my mind, in my mind, I literally right. So, just just to recap for everyone, there was a period after if you remember the Michelle Bachman incident. Yes, were suddenly they understand that, oh the Roots customized walk ons for people. Suddenly people wanted to do these epic ass walk ons, like literally, Will Smith and Steve Martin all their walk ons are very epic.

Can a Philly moment real quick?

Because well, how does it feel you kind of started this wave, I mean outside of Philadelphia international gamble huff, but this huge wave of like Philly talent? What does it look like? Fast forward? To not just see the roots, right, but to see Kevin Hart like Philly is like killing it.

What does it feel like to be like the kind of daddy of all of this?

You know? And it's so funny because like.

And and this is this is why working on your mind is the only work to do.

Right.

We need to talk more.

Right, So for me, I perceived myself as an outcast.

From that group, right, that was right? So to me, a I I was the real Philly dude.

But he wasn't from Philly.

He wasn't from Philly, but he was holding it down. Really that was a repping for Philly. A mirror is the look of repping for Philly.

But you to look making it from Philly?

Right? Yes?

So, but you know what, but I will say this, I will energey as a non Philly person as an outsider perspective to give you a little context on that.

Will.

I think for you, you just became to like you just became to embody like so much other things, Like you became bigger than Philly. You became bigger than you know what I'm saying in the United States, Like you just became Will Smith. It was not no, this is Will

Wait let me add on to that and let you answer.

Will I just want to let you know that I was one of those listeners you and Jeff had went to Das the night that He's the DJ and I'm the rapper came out yep, and you had to battle with Steady be Man. Listen, Tarik, and I heard that munchie Chie line that I don't know there was feeestyle whatever, but like that's the first time I heard someone like

Like literally that battle, I wish I had that on tape.

But answer the question, but I want to know what.

Is But yes, yeah, yeah, do you feel you get those respects that respect SNMC.

More now than during during that time.

I feel like when people look back with with a little bit of history, yo, that was kind of that was kind of interesting.

Yeah, he wasn't half bad.

What it was is Jeff and Ready Rock would body anybody. So that's really so I was in between Jeff and Ready Rock, so I felt supported in that way, like nobody could beat Jeff right and what Ready Rock was doing was just you know, he was one of one right in terms of beat box, so there was like nobody really even to battle him. So I always felt like as a crew we would win, Like if people wanted to go a head up, I felt like as

But Charlie said that nobody was not even trying to battle you on the streets because you was killing it so hard and then not to mention the battle and lyrically.

But then when it came to fisticuffs, you wasn't a game neither.

No, that was unless I had to.

I had to learn how to fight quick, so you know that was That was the one thing that was always a surprise to people. It's like I had so much you know, anger and resentment build up. I would suck upunch somebody quick, right, So I like, I was like, just fight me, then fight me then, right.

People think they know they have no idea. Can I ask a random Westbrook question please?

Because I know we're getting tight with time, But you got a couple of my favorite shows that's either coming on or on right now.

I wanted to throw it out real quick.

I forgot about Will Smith. The business this is.

I'm trying to get.

Start with the most random of randoms, which is Cobra Kai.

Hey, listen, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something, brother, Hey, let me tell you something. Man, Look Cobra Kai bro even without them to stop, man, listen, whole boy.

When he went to that draw and he.

Pulled out that god damn ponytail. When Homer pulled that scrunching out when he put out the hairtie. I said, boy, let's go, let's go. Terry Silver is back. Bro, me and my wife, y'all know, I'm not giving those pawmers.

I mean, he's in the trailer like no. Season four Cobra Co was the best one.

Caleb pink at my brother in law. Yeah, soir, Caleb. Caleb is uh, you know, I trained him for about five years and now he started his own company. He's producing. So he brought in uh Cobra Kai to the to the family.

So yeah, he's Uh.

They just got nominated. They got nominated for uh SAG Awards. Uh last night the Copra guys nominated.

And eight Babies Dreams Come True.

Oh my god.

Yeah, man, that show is fucking great. I love that show.

Because Caleb brought it in.

I was like, Cobra Kai the Karate Kids, right, because you know, we had done the Karate Kid with Jaden.

We were already working with the I P.

I was wondering, are we gonna get.

Jayden in future seasons of Cobra Ka.

Can we get.

We need a need?

That's a great idea, that's a good question, that's a.

Really cool got to show them to teach yourself.

No, right.

Was brilliant World Earth.

Welcome to Earth, Welcome to Okay, so from the Earth, just finish all the episodes, Brother, Brother Brother. First of all, can you break down to the world how National Geographic makes that ship look like that?

Yes, I know you had.

To be in.

Me and my boyfriend were like, what in the GoPro do they do how?

I mean know, listen, it looks gorgeous.

You know there's a company called Newtopia that that Westbrook we partnered with, and you know it's just nat Geo knows how to do it.

It's like, you know, they're they're getting us into some.

Really beautiful places, some places that are untapped.

It was like that the and they just know how to shoot it. I don't even know what they're doing.

And your honest, I love because we can see your fear.

So when you circle back on the Fear episode, I was like, thank you, because yeah, I was.

Gonna say if they presented you something that you were like, I'm not ready this season, like maybe next.

Yeah, there's one. There's one that we pushed to next year.

It was a trek to the South Pole and it takes nine days, and it's tense, tense all the way for nine days to to the South Pole.

And I was don't want to big you up for having so many explorers of color on.

Yes, yes exactly, but and you know what, that's all I'm gonna shout out and that geo and and uh Newtopia. You know that that is a part of their demand for the show. They like they They are specifically mandating that the all of the episodes be representative. So yeah, they are the truth and bel Air.

It is about to be crazy.

As as evidenced by even though you know the gloves have been blacked out. Yeah, are you ready with your acceptance speech for the Oscars?

Hey, man, you can't. You're not supposed to talk about that kind of stuff.

I was, I was talking. I was talking earlier about that. Oh for another thing, we had the Women of the Movement. Women of the Movement, Yes.

We have that.

Yeah, yeah, that's uh with jay Z produced that with Jenny. Yeah, so that that that's coming out too. But I was just talking about the you know, the idea of I'm trying to be spiritually above the the desire to win awards.

That's right, I get it.

But I told you, but I told you, I predicted you did.

I believe that Beyonce is gonna win that night.

Mm hmmm.

I believe that you're gonna win.

Love it, And I won't say no if they If they, I won't be like I.

Believe it don't matter because the people love you and that's what's first.

So there you go. I love me, which is the new thing that I've gotten to.

It's like I feel good about me with or without an Academy award.

One thing I wanted to ask you, Will that I think it would be helpful for a lot of people when you talk about just your journey of just you know, growing and you know kind of you know, learning to love yourself and be happy and everything.

You know, a lot of people can look and say, well, Will, that's easy. And Nigga, you made iron legend. I mean you know what I mean, right, you know what I'm saying.

You got a team, you got therapists, you got chefs, you got accounts that you got all that. So to someone that's you know, not in your position, what would you say? I is just that taking what is step one of wanting to just be better and have a healthier relationship with yourself?

What is step one?

Regardless of money, whatever, what's the first step you can take?

I think I think the first thing is to take an honest look at your life and how much of it do you like? Right, Just take a really good look at your life, right, because it is a journey. You do have to make a journey, and the journey is from you know, unpleasant and unwanted circumstances to circumstances that you desire, right, and all the learning that you will have to do will be on your journey.

Right. So the first thing is to commit to transformation. Right. There's no easy road. There's no easy road you're gonna have.

Want the work is still yours.

The work is yours, and the work can be done in any circumstance. There's like, you know, my Grandma's used to say, God is everywhere, right, so you can find it anywhere. You just have to commit to transforming your life. First and foremost, you have to decide, you know what

It's really hard.

I mean, other than Will, I think Will is one of the best books on the market right now for the transform of your life of everything I read.

Let me just let our listeners know and for all the like nigga, I don't read it whatever, no, no, no, no, no, I'm gonna let you know what time it is.

It's weird enough.

Having written six books myself, I didn't consider myself a reader. However, when I started, you know, when the pandemic started and I started doing my morning walks versus podcast.

Man, I've read.

I've read so many books audiobook style, which is still reading like yeah, whatever for you snobs, like you have to read it first in order to read a book. Now, I believe the way that you should take in Will's book, your first thing is I definitely believe that you should listen to the audiobook because it's different when it's coming from his voice.

Yeah, and not to mention, he Pepper's the.

Soundtrack that makes it feel like it's a podcast or whatever, like there's down effects, re enactments and.

Him imitating Charlie Mack and all that stuff.

I feel, and it makes it endearing, especially those last six chapters. So fante, I would actually recommend you once you listen to that, that'll you know. I think it's important that people really taking this book.

And hear what Will is saying.

And I don't think it's a hashtag like only rich people stuff or whatever likes. It's literally having the will to know you want to change, and especially where we are now where a lot of us and what I mean us hip hop nation, a lot of these cats are expiring and they're fifty before they make sixty.

And I think a lot of that just has to do with the will.

To not.

Want to move on.

I think it's one thing that it's like when you get past twenty, you're like, Okay, I didn't get shot, so now I'm good. And then there's a point where we, you know, try to not have a stroke or make sure our health is right. Now I'm realizing that sixty on is going to be a crazier battle for us to have the will to live and.

All those things.

So I would actually recommend Will's audiobook first as a central reading.

I was just going to ask the craziest question of all. I was just gonna say, hold on, battle Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff.

In the versus what.

We said, who's going to.

Who's going to battle Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff in the versus it was a.

Job, It's going to battle Jazzy Jeff. Yeah, I was like battle.

I was us having that conversation with somebody the other day and somebody was like, you know, y'all, y'all should go with.

L was like l L L L Yeah, I record, all right.

I'm not gonna have me getting bodied by ls.

You know, you know what I actually think, you know what I think your match would be who I would I would think that Jessey, Jeff and the Fresh Prince versus Naughty by Nature be a good versus.

Okay, okay, okay, that might be fine.

I'm mad. I'm not mad.

I think I think.

It's evenly matched.

Yeah, yeah, it's like I think that would be. You got like twenty albums, right.

That boy got Hello and Buster I think are more of a match.

I don't care if they feel if they're outclassed each other, but I feel like ll and Buster almost.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was gonna ask you, Will, do you ever get a point in terms of when you talk about like always striving, striving and climbing and like build your team and keeping them like always wanting to elevate. Do you ever get to a point where you just realize, you know what, I'm good? Like good ever happen in the mind of Will Smith.

I've looked at the first half of my life. I think about it in terms of climbing and collecting, and now the second half of my life is going to be given away, right, It's going to be giving it back, right, So it was, you know, all of the things that I gathered through the you know, striving and.

Climbing, and now my attention is on.

Developing my heart and developing my mind through giving and relating.

Right.

So part of the discovery for me is my true happiness was never going to be achieved through collecting, and I'm realizing that the deepest joy that I experience it is through giving, right.

And it was like, that's the the real.

Magic of love is giving, and it's in helping, it's in using what you are to assist someone else to become what they were meant to become.

Right.

Do you think that's Do you think that's what's kept you and Jada together for so long?

Is that that sounds like a foundational part of y'all? Yeah?

Yeah, we are. We are full on climbers and seekers.

We are developing our comprehension of what love is. And like everybody wants love, but nobody knows what it actually is. Right, So you want something, but you don't you don't know what it is, right, And it's like the Marines always there's a marine quote. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody die, right, and it's like there's a there's a certain amount of self reconstruction that has to happen in order to have any possibility at love.

Your life has to be focused.

On transforming and correcting the false beliefs, the flawed perceptions, the poisonous ideas.

In your mind. Your entire life has.

To be centered on removing those things in order that you can hold the love that you're asking for from someone else.

Gentlemen, it's not.

As big man.

Yeah that's big, that's big.

Let us. Yeah, that's for you. Yeah, that's it.

That's it right, Like literally I thought, like, you know, okay, Jimmy Jam's episode was six hours, so no, but will literally drop so much potent magic in this interview.

And I really want to thank you for.

Giving us, uh letting us be the audience, not even giving us this audience really.

Man, seriously, man, and thank you to I mean, I can't I have no idea what it would be like to have spent you know, the last thirty five years of my life is one of the most famous people

And we just thank you just for everything, bro, for real, and thank.

You for always coming back to Philly, because I tell you doing those weekends he hasn't, but still when he was doing them, you was always.

There, always cleaning up the neighborhoods.

So thank you. Appreciate y'all, man, thank you, Thank you well.

On behalf of Layah Sugar, Steve Unpaid, Bill and Fonte and myself Well Smith, thank you very much.

This is Quest Love Supreme. We will see you on the next ground.

Thank you.

Must Love Supreme is a production of Iheartened Radio.

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