Jaden and Willow Smith are two of the busiest teenage artists out right now. Considering their age, each has been releasing music at a prolific rate for much of the year. Jaden just released a three-track album to celebrate Kendall Jenner's birthday. Today, Willow will be doing a performance and a Q&A at the Beats Store in SoHo to promote her new digital album III. Needless to say, the Smith children have this music thing poppin' for them right now.
But as revealed in their first ever joint interview with The New York Times, they don't really care about whether or not things are blowing up right now—they're two rather autonomous teenagers who are, at juncture in their young lives, wholly concerned with their own thoughts, expressions, and how those two things result in music. To them, that independence has made for better music.
"Caring less what everybody else thinks, but also caring less and less about what your own mind thinks, because what your own mind thinks, sometimes, is the thing that makes you sad," Willow says. Jaden reciprocated Willow's quote, but also went off to address any questions others may have about whether or not music is a career for him. "That’s another thing: What’s your job, what’s your career? Nah, I am," Jaden says. "I’m going to imprint myself on everything in this world."
Bold words from a young man, but you can't front on the ambition. "Here’s the deal: School is not authentic because it ends," Jaden adds. "It’s not true, it’s not real. Our learning will never end. The school that we go to every single morning, we will continue to go to." As for what they spent their time reading? "Quantum physics. Osho," Willow says. “The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life” and ancient texts; things that can’t be pre-dated," Jaden adds.
Either way, the most impressive part of this interview is Jaden's thoughts on duality:
Exactly. Because your mind has a duality to it. So when one thought goes into your mind, it’s not just one thought, it has to bounce off both hemispheres of the brain. When you’re thinking about something happy, you’re thinking about something sad. When you think about an apple, you also think about the opposite of an apple. It’s a tool for understanding mathematics and things with two separate realities. But for creativity: That comes from a place of oneness. That’s not a duality consciousness. And you can’t listen to your mind in those times — it’ll tell you what you think and also what other people think.
For more highly introspective and surprisingly mature quotes from the Smith children (philosophy, fashion, prana energy, and why driver's ed sucks are amongst the other topics), read the full interview here.
