Will Smith celebrates his “comeback” with BET performance

Between the box office success of Bad Boys: Ride Or Die and, more importantly, his visit to Hot Ones, Will Smith has spent the past few months clawing his way back into Hollywood’s good graces. While he’s still barred from the Academy and all of its events for the next near-decade, he’s shifted his focus to other realms—namely his long-dormant music career, which he revived in fiery fashion with a performance at the BET Awards last night. But while Smith probably could have accomplished all of this without mentioning the reason he needed to do a comeback tour in the first place, he’s taken a bit of a curious route in new single, “You Can Make It.” Instead of leaving his absence unspoken, he’s essentially addressing The Slap head-on.

Smith posted a video of his performance on Twitter/X last night, with the caption, “I have returned Home! The comeback is always bigger than the setback.”

“Whatever’s going on in your life, I’m here to tell you you can make it,” Smith kicked off the performance Sunday night, while surrounded by a ring of fire. He went on to rap a series of lyrics all surrounding the theme of overcoming hardship (via The Hollywood Reporter):

The darker the hell you gotta endure / The brighter the heaven you get to enjoy / The harder the fall, the higher you soar / God opens a window when the devil closes the door / Believe me, they tried to bleed Will Smith / In the rearview, I see adversity was the gift / To lift me higher gifts requires faith / So dry your eyes and then you’ll find a way / Out of the madness, out of the maze / And out of the saddest into the rays / The darkest of nights turns into day / And every storm runs out of rain

The on-the-nose performance was accompanied by the Sunday Service Choir, Chandler Moore and Kirk Franklin, and ended with a rainstorm that doused the flames. “Nobody gets an easy ride / We all have a cross to bear / But there’s wisdom in that fire / And every moment of your life is a brand-new opportunity / We are not being punished, we are being forged / Dance in your darkest moments,” Smith sang at the end of the song.

While these lyrics are certainly a little corny, and it’s pretty funny for Smith to refer to an altercation he instigated as “they tried to bleed Will Smith,” something about this strategy seems to be clicking. Smith and co. received a standing ovation after his performance and the video has already received nearly half a million views (as of this writing). Bad Boys: Ride Or Die is also still going strong at number four at the box office. We’ll see what the comeback tour offers next as the Smith-aissance continues.