Will Smith, an African Giant, one of the top-paid celebrities of all time

African American actor, rapper, producer and writer, an African Giant diaspora, Willard Carroll Smith a.k.a Will Smith has risen to be one of the top-paid celebrities of all time.

Will Smith is a household name and one of the world’s most famous actors with a long and successful career as a rapper, actor, and producer. He became a millionaire before he turned 20 years old.

He is in the Guinness Book of World Record for the most public appearances within a 12-hour time span, after attending an unprecedented three premieres in one day.

When he was only 12 years old, in High School, he began rapping at home and in school. He was nicknamed “The Prince” because he would goof off and get into trouble, but then use his fast-talking charm to convince the teachers to let him off with a warning. His sister described him as “goofy” while he bounced around entertaining everyone.

When he was done with high school, he went ahead to pursue his rapping career. In 1990, Will was offered the opportunity to get his own TV show: The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He started off with ‘The Fresh Prince’ as his stage name. Jeff also plays a character on the show, “Jazz.” The show ran through to May 20, 1996 and was incredibly successful.

The show is notable for having a heavy celebrity guest presence with more than 40 celebrities guest starring throughout the series.

Will Smith continued to make music even well into his acting career. He dropped his first track, “Men in Black”, as a solo musician in 1997. The track was used as the theme song in the movie ‘Men in Black’, and topped charts around the world.

He later added the track to his first solo album, ‘Big Willie Style’. ‘Big Willie Style’, was certified nine times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and peaked at top ten on the US Billboard 200. The biggest hit on the album was “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It”, which got to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

Will Smith's second single album was ‘Willennium’. Its lead single, “Wild Wild West” was used as the theme song for the movie “Wild Wild West”. He featured Dru Hill and Kool Moe Dee on the track. “Wild Wild West” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the RIAA, while the album got to the number five spot on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum by the RIAA.

He dropped his third album, Born to Reign, in 2002. The lead track on the album was “Black Suits Comin’ (Nod Ya Head)” and it was used as the theme song for Men in Black II. It peaked at number three on the UK singles chart.

For the next twelve years, it would seem Smith had finally retired from music, but to the industry’s surprise, he dropped another single, titled ‘Get Lit’ in 2017. He featured his childhood friend Jazzy Jeff in the song. As a follow-up to the track, he released “Arabian Nights (2019)”, “Friend Like Me” and “Prince Ali”. The songs were used as soundtracks for Disney’s Aladdin.

Will Smith began his acting career after he was signed by the ‘NBC television network’. He broke into the Hollywood industry in 1993, after he played a major role in ‘Six Degrees of Separation’. His next big feature was in ‘Bad Boys (1995)’. Bad Boys, was his most successful movie at that time as it grossed $141,407,024 worldwide.

In 1996, he featured in Roland Emmerich’s movie, ‘Independence Day’. Independence Day was a huge blockbuster movie, at that time; it was the second most grossed movie in history.

In July the following year, he featured in the hit movie, ‘Men in Black’, where he stirred as ‘Agent J’. Men in black was the third highest grossing movie in 1997 as it made a whopping sum of $589.3 million.

In 1998, he featured in ‘Enemy of the State’ and in 1999, ‘Wild Wild West’. Four years later, in 2003, he stirred in ‘Bad Boys II’. ‘Bad Boys II’ was a success as it grossed $270 million world wide.

In 2008, he featured in the superhero movie ‘Hancock’, which had a worldwide total of $624.4 million.

Will Smith is a living legend. Most actors seem to star in at least one “flop” every once in a while, but Will Smith has a pretty solid track record: He became the first actor in history to star eight films in a row that grossed over $100 million.

Will is known for holding the record for winning the most Kids Choice Awards. This has proven kids love him.

In 2019, Smith featured in the Disney movie, Aladdin, where he played the role of the ‘Genie’. Aladdin grossed over $1 billion worldwide to become Smith’s highest-grossing film. I Am Legend, one of his most successful movies, grossed $585 million worldwide.

Will Smith has a catchphrase, Will Smith somehow figures out a way to incorporate the phrase “Aw, hell no!” into almost all his movies.

Will Smith co-produced (along with Jay-Z and Jada Pinkett Smith) a musical called “Fela!”. It is based on events in the life of groundbreaking Nigerian singer, activist and Afrobeat pioneer Fela Anikulapo Kuti.