Actor and musician DJ Jazzy Jeff has defended Will Smith’s slapping of Chris Rock at this year’s Oscars ceremony. A collaborator and close friend of Smith, the famed hip hop DJ — whose real name is Jeff Townes — spent 10 years recording and touring as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air together.
Though Townes’ role as Jazz on The Fresh Prince was a relatively small one, his inclusion in the series proved Smith’s loyalty to his friend. The Jazz character became part of several key ongoing jokes in the program that audiences loved. In later years, as Smith moved on to even bigger and better things, Townes stayed focused on his music, continuing to release albums and mixtapes as well as touring. The duo reunited as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince several times after they’d officially called it quits, even releasing a 2019 single called "Yo Home To Bel Air." After so many years as friends, it’s not hard to understand why Townes would have something to say about the controversy surrounding Smith’s Chris Rock slap.
By this point, the entire world seems well aware of Smith slapping Rock during the Oscar ceremony. The incident occurred after Rock told a joke at Jada Pinkett Smith’s expense and ever since then, a constant stream of opinions has arrived from celebrities and journalists alike. But while most of those opinions haven’t come from many people who are actually close to Smith, Townes has now spoken out on the issue. As per ComicBook, Townes explained that he felt Smith’s reaction was “a lapse in judgment”:
"I think the thing that I've realized is I don't know too many people that has had the least amount of lapse of judgment than him. I can name 50 times that he should've smacked the s--- out of somebody and he didn't. So for him to have a lapse in judgment, he's human. And I think a lot of the criticism comes from the people who don't think people like that are human."
So far Smith has accepted the severity of the situation but has yet to fully sit down and talk about the incident. The Fresh Prince star voluntarily resigned as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and was issued a 10-year ban from attending Oscar ceremonies. It remains to be seen what sort of effect the slap will have on his career, but it’s unlikely that fans are going to turn their backs on Smith now. Townes does have a point that Smith is human and that he made a mistake. However, assaulting a comedian over a joke is something that simply doesn’t cast Smith’s professionalism in a very kind light.
While it’s all well and fine to say that Smith made a poor judgment call, it doesn’t change the fact that Chris Rock had to endure quite the ordeal as a result. It’s true that making fun of Pinkett Smith’s alopecia was in poor taste, but it didn’t deserve a slap in front of millions of viewers. Smith’s anger got the better of him in a big way and this is especially distressing considering that he was laughing mere seconds before erupting in rage. For the time being, the issue is over with, however, things are sure to ramp back up again when either Will Smith or Rock speaks publicly and at length about what is now a piece of Hollywood history.
Source: ComicBook