Jada Pinkett Smith , now best known for her work as an actress in productions such as Gotham (2014) and The Nutty Professor (1996), was the vocalist for the nu metal band Wicked Wisdom in the early 2000s.
Will Smith 's wife and mother of Jaden and Willow used to take her children on tour, and the experience strongly influenced Willow in the release of her first pop-punk album, Lately I Feel Everything . Previously, the young singer had already spoken about her desire to lead a new generation of women and Black people in rock, citing her mother as a great example.
In the concert/documentary that Willow released to coincide with the arrival of her album, mother and daughter have a conversation about rock music and the hostility of the scene towards Black women – Jada even mentions that she used to perform while dodging objects that people threw at her.
“I like that we’re in different times where [a woman in rock] is much more acceptable. The first time you told me you wanted to make a heavy sound, I was a little scared because I’d been in a very hostile environment,” Jada recounts. “People threw things at me on stage, I received many death threats.”
Willow responds that witnessing this part of her mother's life firsthand was one of the things that motivated her to make music. “You always had a ‘this is crazy, but I’m even crazier’ attitude, so I always thought music was a place made for activism. It’s the only way I’ve ever looked at it,” says the young woman. The two then discuss the freedom they found in music, and Jada affirms: “That’s what metal did for me; it gave me complete freedom to be fierce.”
In May, Willow reunited Jada's former bandmates for a Mother's Day surprise, where she took over vocals on one of Wicked Wisdom's songs. On her new album, the young artist repeated her collaboration with drummer Aaron Haggerty .
READ ALSO: Willow, Will Smith's daughter, opens up about prejudice for being black and listening to rock music.
