Will Smith's First Music in a Decade Is With Colombian Stars Bomba Estéreo

By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd  |  October 2, 2015 | 1:05pm
Entertainment

Will Smith has excellent taste. One of the biggest superstars in the entire world was in Colombia recently and stumbled upon the music of heroes Bomba Estéreo, a group we also love here at Jezebel. The difference between Will and us, though, is that he rapped on it.

“Fiesta,” the dazzling single from Amanacer, got a remix from Big Willie Style, his first recorded music since 2005’s Lost & Found. Bomba Estéreo bandleader Simón Mejia, in a press release: “When I was told that Will Smith wanted to collaborate on a remix with Bomba, I couldn’t believe it. This opportunity to work with Will was beyond anything we have dreamed of. It’s not a traditional featuring—it’s just magic. We all had a blast together at the video shoot and we want to thank Will for being so warm and such a pleasure to work with… and for rapping in Spanish!”

Oh yes, he sure does rap in Spanish! Like most Will Smith music, it’s just awkward enough to be charming, although his Spanglish verses—is he really saying “Hola mamacita/Go get me a birra”?!—bring to mind recent guest spots by Nicki Minaj and Drake on Romeo Santos’s Formula, Vol. 2. (To be fair Smith sounds much, much more comfortable in Spanish and Minaj had the verse of 2014 when she sang “give it to me todo la noche/give it to me, rip me right out of my Dolce.”)

It’s also interesting to hear Will Smith trying to rap like Pitbull, the most important artist of our time. Is he what non-Latinos think about when they think about Latino rapping? Who knows, but this can only bode well for Bomba, who are definitely about to land on every gossip and tabloid site on the internet, and absolutely deserve all the accolades and money in the world. A video for “Fiesta” featuring Smith will drop soon; in the meantime, cop Amanacer now from Sony Music Latin.

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Image via Bomba Estéreo

 
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