Boom! Shake the Room

By 1993, gangsta rap was the big trend in hip-hop. This is a very PG song, with no guns or overt sex, but compared to the duo's previous hits ("Parents Just Don't Understand," "Summertime"), it's straight nasty, with Will Smith - still known as The Fresh Prince - getting bragadocious and telling some girl that he's going to turn her around and "work that booty." Aggressive stuff, and not real believable coming from the wholesome Smith. And while other rappers who turned suddenly Gangsta in the '90s (Kriss Kross, MC Hammer) saw their careers implode, Smith didn't need to keep rapping, since he had a solid acting career. This was the last single he released with DJ Jazzy Jeff, and four years later, when he resumed his rap career under his real name, he apparently learned his lesson, as he stopped posturing and focused his lyrical content on having fun and promoting his movies. Huge hits followed, including his first single "Men In Black" in 1997 and "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" the next year.

This samples "Funky Worm," which was a #15 US hit released in 1972 by the Ohio Players. DJ Jazzy Jeff (Jeff Townes) is a very well respected DJ who created the tracks and worked the samples for the duo.

This is a rare rap song with some stuttering, which Smith uses to demonstrate how he conquers his fear to rule the microphone.