Will Smith took a page from the book of Kanye West — fortunately, not the one about Jewish people — for his 2024 BET Awards performance, employing a full Sunday Service-esque choir (led by Kirk Franklin, naturally) to accompany him as he debuted an inspirational new song, “Bulletproof.” The stage was set up like something West would have deployed during his Donda era, replete with dancing flames and extremely Yeezy wardrobe to boot — pun intended. If Will Smith wants to move into the space recently vacated by the disgraced Kanye, though, we could do worse.
This is very Kanye influenced but I don’t care lol #willsmith
— Lyric Jones (@LyricJones) July 1, 2024
This Will Smith performance is so Kanye coded, I love it #BETAwards
— s. (@Shan_icee) July 1, 2024
Peeped a snippet of Will Smith's BET Awards performance and it looks like a Kanye performance from years ago. Folks talking about he came back to black folks after the Oscars shunned him. Y'all got Will f**ked up because he never left us.
— Michael (Variant From Earth-92131) (@SecretAvenger22) July 1, 2024
Smith certainly has had his share of self-inflicted tribulations over the last couple of years. Those stem, of course, from the 2022 Academy
Awards, when Smith walked onstage to slap the host, comedian Chris Rock, after Rock made some disparaging remarks about Smith’s wife(?), Jada Pinkett Smith. Since then, due to Will and Jada’s promotional tours for their respective memoirs, the rapper/actor fell out of public favor for some time due to their persistent oversharing.
However, you’re only ever one hit away from a comeback, and in Will’s case, that hit is Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, which is not only dominating the box office, but also reminding people why they loved the Philly native as an actor in the first place. With his new song, he’s really returning to his Fresh Prince roots, and perhaps on the cusp of a musical comeback, as well.
You can watch Will Smith’s 2024 BET Awards performance above and find the full list of 2024 BET Awards nominees and winners here.
