DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince were an American hip hop duo from West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, consisting of rapper Will Smith (the Fresh Prince) and disc jockey Jeff Townes (DJ Jazzy Jeff). Active full time from 1986 to 1994 and occasionally thereafter, the duo became just the third rap group in recorded history to receive platinum certification, after Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys. The group received the first Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 1989 for "Parents Just Don't Understand" (1988), though their most successful single was "Summertime" (1991), which earned the group their second Grammy and peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Will Smith and Jeff Townes have remained close friends and claim they never split up, having made songs together under Smith's solo performer credit. DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince have sold over 5.5 million albums in the US. They also performed together as recently as September 2019.
Career
1985–1988: early years and Rock the House
Jeff Townes was introduced to Will Smith at a house party Townes was performing at in 1985, and Smith ended up filling in for his missing hype man. They both felt strong chemistry, and Townes was disappointed when his hype man finally made it to the party.
Soon after, the two decided to join forces. Smith enlisted a friend to join as the beatboxer of the group, Ready Rock C, who was not officially credited to the duo, only as a support live member. In 1986, Philadelphia-based Word Records (later changed to Word-Up Records) released their first single "Girls Ain't Nothing but Trouble", which sampled the theme song of I Dream of Jeannie. Smith became known for light-hearted story-telling and profanity-free "battle" rhymes. The single became a hit a month before Smith graduated from high school.
Based on this success, the duo was brought to the attention of Jive Records and Russell Simmons. The duo's first album, Rock the House, which was first released on Word Up in 1986, was rereleased on Jive in March 1987. The album sold approximately 300,000 units. That same year, the band embarked on its first major tour with Run DMC and Public Enemy.
1988–1989: He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper
Their 1988 follow-up album, He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper, made them multi-platinum stars. Mostly recorded in the United Kingdom, the album was rap music's first double-vinyl LP release; it was also issued as a single cassette and CD. "Parents Just Don't Understand", the lead-off single, made them MTV household names and also gained the honor of the first Grammy for a hip hop/rap song, which was met with criticism. Nevertheless, the single was a success, launching the group into even more mainstream stardom. The video showed Prince's misadventures of trying to get around his parents' strict rules in a very comical way, very much like their first single "Girls Ain't Nothing but Trouble". It gained much airplay on TV channels such as MTV, giving the group much attention. The song was played in an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ("Someday Your Prince Will Be In Effect (Part 1)"), and referenced in two other episodes of the same series ("The Fresh Prince Project" and "Not With My Pig, You Don't").
Another single, "A Nightmare on My Street", showcased a fictional confrontation with A Nightmare on Elm Street villain Freddy Krueger. The record's release coincided with A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, which caused legal threats from the movie's distributor New Line Cinema. In response, the corresponding music video was pulled from release and a legal disclaimer was included on later pressings of He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper denying affiliation with the film. The video was released by Jazzy Jeff in 2018.
Jeff reveals on track 19 of Skillz's Infamous Quotes mixtape that New Line Cinema approached Will & Jeff for a role in the movie House Party, which they turned down. The last single, track 3 from He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper, was "Brand New Funk", which sampled and quoted the James Brown funk song "My Thang". In narrative of the song, the Fresh Prince explains how Jeff has brought in a tape described to be startlingly good, which the Fresh Prince raps to, and how much people enjoyed it at the first performance. The song was well received by many hip hop fans due to its funk sound, lyrical spins, and the fact that it showed off more of the skills of Jazzy Jeff. The video was shot in black and white, showed live performance clips from a concert and featured 2 Damn Hype Dancing.