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DJ Jazzy Jeff on Will Smith: 'He Has Never Stopped Rapping'

Can we expect an album soon?

Will Smith really caught the bug and is back in the music scene.

Smith shared some rhymes over “Fiesta (Remix)” by Columbian band Bomba Estero that hinted he’s returning to the studio to cook up some jams. This week, Smith spoke with Zane Lowe to reveal he does have more music coming … 30 songs to be exact.

"I'm pretty much poppin' in the studio every day, and I'm looking for artists to collaborate with, and I'm trying to find that voice," he said. "I have so many things that I wanna say, and I'm struggling with saying them in a way that fits the flavor of music that I tend to like. I've got a lot of young artists and young philosophers trying to help me extract the ideas from my mind and my heart. But I probably have 30 songs — six to seven that I really, really like.

During an interview with Rolling Stone, DJ Jazzy Jeff gave an update on the status of working with Smith again in the studio. This comes off the heels of an announcement that the pair were reuniting for a new album and world tour.

“I know just with the schedules, it will be in sections,” Jazzy Jeff says of the recording timetable. “It could be any time like, I'm home for two weeks and we're going to get together and do something. That could really start off with me sending him something and him recording it and then us getting together. But the only way that I will [record the finished track] is if we are in the studio together. That's how it's always been. I’m not worried about me at all. I think the beauty of it is that he started it, and he's ready to go.”
When asked if he ever thought the two would release another album, he replied with:

“Let me put it like this: You don't retire from an art. This has always been inside of him and he's always wanted to do this. He has never stopped rapping. It's just that being the biggest movie star on the planet, you don't have enough time. There has never been a time that he didn't jump on my microphone when we're together, because that is in his blood. You think you're going to be around a basketball court with Michael Jordan and he is not going to shoot? That'll never happen! I’m just happy that he's at the point where he's like, ‘You know what? I really want to do this.’ And the whole idea is he realizes he wants to have fun. I can tell the level of enjoyment he has from doing it.”

Head over to Rolling Stone for the full interview.

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(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

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