Will Smith cut into critics on Monday in a new music video, blasting claims that he’s “canceled” just over three years after he infamously slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars.
The rapper shared visuals for “INT. BARBERSHOP - DAY” — the opening song off his first new album in two decades — in which he portrays several characters taking part in a mock barbershop debate on his reputation.
“Will Smith is canceled,” said Smith, dressed in a wig while holding clippers and a comb as if he were a barber.
“Oh, you can’t cancel no icon,” replied the actor, dressed as a different barber in a pair of sunglasses.
Smith, returning as the barber in the wig, said he’d “never forgive” the actor for the “shit he did.” Another one of Smith’s characters, dressed as a child, claims the actor won an Oscar, but he “had to give it back” (Actually, Smith kept the Oscar statuette from his 2022 Best Actor win despite his 10-year ban from the awards show).
Smith, playing a different man in Groucho glasses and reading his 2021 memoir “Will,” dryly reminds the others to “keep his wife’s name out of your mouth.”
The actor ends the video by walking into the barbershop scene without a costume and with his Oscar statuette in hand.
The track also features longtime collaborator DJ Jazzy Jeff and B. Simone.
You can watch Smith’s full music video here.
Smith dropped his album “Based on a True Story” on Friday, marking a musical comeback. Multiple songs address the widespread backlash he faced after slapping Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards over the comedian’s joke targeting Jada Pinkett Smith.
Elsewhere on the album — in his song “You Lookin’ for Me?” — Smith declares that people will get “acclimated” to him again, adding that his “shit’s still hot even though I won’t get nominated.” (He’s still able to receive Oscar nominations.)
Before his return to a major awards show at this year’s Grammys, Smith found box office success this past summer in the buddy cop film “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” which grossed over $404 million worldwide.