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NEWS : STORIES
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04.01.2005 9:23 PM EST
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Will Smith Chose Hollywood Over Hip-Hop, But Now He's Back
Actor/rapper has no regrets, insists he's a better lyricist with more to say.
by
Shaheem Reid, with reporting by SuChin Pak
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Will Smith (file)
(Photo:
Interscope
)
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To be where he is today, Will Smith says he had to kill Will Smith. Explaining the title of his latest album, Lost and Found, Smith revealed that the rapper and stage performer he could have been was "essentially lost to the actor."
"I
know the type of guy that I am," he said Tuesday, before appearing on "TRL." "I know the type of intellectual and emotional and spiritual beast that I am when I love something and when I create. All of that energy that I put into the film world — honestly, I can do that anywhere. I feel that I had to make a decision, and I feel that I slit the throat of the rapper I could have been for the actor to live."
So does Will wish he had focused more on rhyme books than Hollywood scripts?
"I don't really look at things in terms of regret because I think that things are the way they are, and regret is almost a foolish emotion," he replied. "I feel like at 19 years old, it would have been a beautiful thing to have the level of focus on my rap career that I started to put on my acting career. There's no telling what it could have been and who I could have developed into as a musician."
Smith said that when he started blowing up in Hollywood, he neglected the development of himself as a rapper, but he's not crying any rivers. And let's face it: Even if he was, he has enough money from projects like "Men in Black," "Bad Boys" and "Hitch" to wipe his eyes with hundred-dollar bills. In the past eight months, he's been back recording with people including Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige and longtime friend DJ Jazzy Jeff. He even soaked up some of Ludacris' pen game for Lost and Found, which was released Tuesday.
"I found a piece of that guy," he said of Big Will the rapper. "I think I'm a better lyricist than I've ever been. I've had more life experience. I got something I want to say. I think lyrically I'm much more prepared than I've ever been before."
This report is provided by MTV News
 
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