Will Smith has been heavily criticized for slapping Chris Rock onstage at the Oscars last month, but his oldest friend thinks people are missing the big picture.
DJ Jazzy Jeff rose to fame in the late ’80s in a rap duo with Smith, then known as “The Fresh Prince.” The two have remained loyal to each other and still collaborate musically.
Jeff came to Smith’s defense last Thursday while talking with “WGCI Morning Show” personality Dave Jeff at a Chicago record store, according to Black Enterprise.
He said the Oscars incident was not only just “a lapse of judgment” on Smith’s part.
“I don’t know too many people that has had the least amount of lapse of judgment than him,” he said.
Jeff also thought that Smith should get at least some credit for not losing his cool in his more than three-decade show business career, according to a recording of the event shared on Instagram.
“I can name 50 times where he should’ve smacked the shit outta somebody, and he didn’t,” Jeff said. “So for him to have a lapse of judgment, he’s human. I think a lot of the criticism comes from the people who don’t think people that that are human.”
In the weeks since the Oscars, Smith has voluntarily resigned from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which also banned him from attending a ceremony for 10 years.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misidentified the interviewer as Kyle Santillian. The interviewer was Dave Jeff.
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