Remember when Will Smith was the fun rapper? The enormously affable, uncomplicated rapper? The giddily cheerful Fresh Prince behind “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” the Big Willie Styling hunk of “Jiggy Wit It,” and the sunny seasonal greeter from the anthemic “Summertime”?
Smith doesn’t. At least not judging from the weighty rationalizations (or downright excuses, you decide) that drive the convoluted hip-hop of “Based on a True Story,” his first new album since 2005.
Many things are bringing Smith down, or pushing him to endless self-examinations, as he (mostly implicitly) deals with the fallout from that angry slap during the 2022 Oscars and its immediate effect on his good-guy
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