Bad Boys for Life, the long-awaited sequel to the Will Smith and Martin Lawrence-starring action franchise, makes its debut later this month.
In anticipation of that, Smith hit up The Tonight Show on Thursday for a retrospective sequence in which he and host Jimmy Fallon rapped "the history of Will Smith." The results include musical shout-outs to almost every facet of Smith's decades-strong career including Fresh Prince, the original Bad Boys, Men in Black, Wild Wild West, Shark Tale, and more. Catch that up top.
Smith also joined Fallon for some couch chatting, touching on everything from his turning down of The Matrix years ago to a suggestion from Michael Bay during production on the original Bad Boys that Bay is convinced helped Smith become a star.
"Michael Bay's like 'Dude, I'm gonna make you a freakin' movie star. Take your shirt off,'" Smith recalled. "I was like 'Mike, come on, man. Runnin' with your shirt off? Come on, man. He was like 'Dude! You don't know! I know!'" Ultimately, a compromise was reached in which the shirt remained on but unbuttoned, as anyone who's seen Bad Boys is aware.
Smith also discussed how Bad Boys nearly starred Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz, as well as joking about his initial goal when entering Bad Boys for Life production.
"I told myself I was doing all of my stunts," Smith said. "I was doing Tom Cruise, you know, just hanging on the side of an airplane at 50. I was like 'Man, I'm better than Tom Cruise.' I did, like, two stunts and I'm like 'I'm not better than Tom Cruise.'"
At any rate, Bad Boys for Life opens Jan. 17.
