Before embarking on his highly acclaimed acting career, Will Smith lent his artistic brilliance to the hip-hop genre. As one-half of the dynamic hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, he catapulted to fame during the early 90s. With their groundbreaking ‘He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper’ album, Smith won his first-ever Grammy Award. Now that he is revisiting his golden era of music with his newly launched podcast, Class of ‘88, he is looking back at those cherished times.

After decades since its release, the Emancipation actor recently revealed how one of his most famous tracks was made. 

Will Smith shares the process of creating this record-smashing hit

In Smith’s debut album ‘Big Willie Style’, the track that gained the most notoriety was ‘Gettin’ Jiggy wit It’, which won him a Grammy award for Best Solo Rap Performance. On October 28, the 55-year-old shared a video to his Instagram story that detailed the process by which the track’s beat was made. The clip which was created by Track Lib’s page featured all the songs that were flipped to create the song. 

When the song was first released, it was iconic enough to be chosen as the title track of Men in Black. Later, the Men in Black actor also performed it during the 40th Grammy Awards. Well, it was all thanks to the artists whose music the song was inspired by. Sister Sledge whose ‘He’s the Greatest Dancer’ and Bar-Kays whose ‘Sang and Dance’ went into making ‘Gettin’ Jiggy wit It’, were also tagged by Smith in his story. 

It was not only these two artists, but also another Grammy-winning rapper who contributed to the track. 

Which rapper co-wrote Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It?

When ‘Big Willie Style’ came out in 1997, it quickly climbed to the top of the Billboards Hot 100 list. Having moved on from DJ Jazzy Jeff, Smith enlisted the help of Poke & Tone, who produced five of the tracks on the album. While most people have come across the album’s hit track, ‘Gettin’ Jiggy wit It’, not many were aware that it was the East Coast rapper Nas who helped Smith write the lyrics to the epic track. 

In the rap industry, Nas is known to be one of the most skilled writers whose verses seem to be loved by audiences far and wide. No wonder, that with some help from him and all the artists mentioned before, the Bad Boys actor was able to create a melody that has lived in the heads of many for decades. Even today, the song is recognized as one of the best rap songs to come from the 90s.

Did you know about the artists whose music was sampled to create ‘Gettin’ Jiggy wit It’? Tell us your answer in the comments.