It's been 10 years since Will Smith released an album—and that's 10 years too long!
The Focus actor appeared on NBC's Tonight Show Thursday and reminded the audience how talented he is as a rapper. "I'm glad you're here," host Jimmy Fallon told him. "We have a lot in common, actually."
"We do?" Smith asked.
"Yeah," the comedian assured him. "We both love music. We both like rap music. You're a famous rapper. I'm a classically trained beatboxer." Because of their shared interests, Fallon told Smith, "I want to try something fun with you. I got this iPad app...and you record ourselves beatboxing and layer a bunch of parts on top of each other, and then it will loop over and over and we can rap over that."
"Oh, like recorded layering?" Smith asked.
"Yes! Is that's what it called?" Fallon asked. "Of course. That's what I was going to say."
After they beatboxed both separately and together, they began rapping Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock's 1988 classic "It Takes Two." Smith, 46, and Fallon, 40, performed in their seats before taking the stage.
Earlier in the show, Fallon asked Smith how his famous family is doing.
"Everybody is great. My daughter [Willow Smith] is 14 years old now. A 14-year-old girl is tough because you lose your authority, you know?" he lamented. Offering an example, he said, "About two weeks ago I was very upset with her about something. For other parents out there, this is very important! I need you to listen closely. There's no successful parenting you can do when you have the hiccups, OK? Because I had the hiccups and I was trying to chastise her. And I said, 'Hey, girl! Listen to me when I'm—hiccup—talking to you.' She looked at me like, 'Mmm.' But I tried to double down on it, you know? I was like, 'I'm not one of—hiccup—your little friends.' The hiccups are like God's emergency brakes on your life. Nothing moves forward when you have the hiccups. I tried to ice grill her since talking wasn't working."
Yet again, the hiccups detracted from his stern facial expression.
"It was just nothing. It was just nothing," Smith reiterated. "It was all tragedy."
Smith also argued that "boys are easier" to raise than girls. "Because if they can't win the fist fight, they just do what you say," the Men in Black 3 star said. "But with girls, it's like, 'Whatchu gonna do?'"
Do Smith's three children still watch his movies?
"They used to see 'em more. Now daddy's not as cool," he said. "I think I'm cool! I think I'm really cool!"
"You are cool!" Fallon told him.
"Not in my house," Smith admitted. "I'm like the dude that keeps the lights on."
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