DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince, aka Will Smith, will have their rise to fame fictionalized in the upcoming scripted series 215.
On Tuesday (Oct. 6), Deadline announced that Smith’s entertainment company Westbook Studios will develop and produce the project, which was based on the early years of Jeff and Smith’s 1980s rap duo. DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince were active from 1984 to 1994 and released five albums, including their sophomore album, He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper. The album carried their popular track “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” which won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 1989.
215 retraces Smith's early beginnings and his rise alongside DJ Jazzy Jeff, real name Jeffrey Allen Townes, as one of the earliest crossover duos in rap. It centers on Smith as a humorous young rapper, his musical partner, and the friends that backed their dreams. As Philadelphia's hip-hop scene develops, the duo joins together to pursue a record deal, money, and a way out of their humble hometown.
Smith kept the ‘Fresh Prince’ moniker for his former 1990s sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ran for six seasons. The series was dramatized in 2020s reboot Bel-Air, which Westbrook Studios also produced.
“Westbrook has always been focused on developing stories with strong characters, distinctive worlds and a clear point of view,” stated Terence Carter, President of Television, Westbrook Studios.
“215 is especially meaningful to us because it draws from the rise of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince and celebrates Philadelphia during such a defining era in the city’s late-’80s/early-’90s hip-hop scene,” Carter continued.
