The Insider.com

Will Smith has become one of the most successful American actors in recent times, but acting wasn't what he had set out to do. Smith's passion was music, and started as the MC of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.

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This Pop Culture Rewind takes you back to the very beginning of Smith's acting career on a show that boosted his career tremendously and made him The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

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Although the show would one day have great success, the then 21-year-old Smith had no way of knowing if the show would thrive or tank, and signed on because money was getting tight for him, as he reveals in the featured flashback.

"It was getting rough out there," Smith replies as to why he joined the new TV show. "There was a time when Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince were the only group that you would see on the Grammys or the American Music Awards...The rap world is tight now. You got...MC Hammer and Kid 'N Play and Tone Loc and Young MC. I was like, 'Hey, [I need] something,' so television was it."

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Smith also talks about the potential success of the show, which eventually went on for 148 episodes over six seasons and has had success under syndication.

"I feel like the ['Fresh Prince of Bel-Air] shows [that we have filmed] are good and if I were to compare them to a lot of other things on TV, I like mine a lot better than a lot of things I see," he says. "If that means that it'll be on for however long..."

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