Film + TV

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air had the best music moments of all time

by Tyler Munro

In a lot of ways, I was raised by The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Certainly in other, truer ways, I wasn’t, but the fact remains: Daily, latchkey kids like myself glued themselves to the TV after school for syndicated episodes of the show.

From start to finish, but especially in the start, the show was a classic. Even from the third season onward, which regularly saw the show breaking the fourth wall, facing cancellation and most notably replacing Janet Hubert’s spicy Aunt Vivian with Daphne Maxwell-Reid’s empty shell of a Stepford Wife, it hit the mark far more often than not.

The Fresh Prince was self-aware and, eventually, well acted. Will Smith was no slouch on the commercial hip-hop charts, but the show elevated him to new heights, eventually allowing him to crossover as one of the biggest box office draws of all time. And to think, the only reason he finally agreed to do it was the backlog of unpaid taxes he owed the IRS.

One thing that kept the show, er, ah, ugh… Fresh… was its bevy of guest stars. From sitcom stars (Sherman Hemsley) to sports stars (Isiah Thomas, Bo Jackson), it was always bringing in a buzzworthy name to boost ratings. But more impressive than that time Will palled it out at the Playboy Mansion were the endless musical guests that came through in the show’s six year run. And even when they couldn’t wrangle in the hip-hop star of the month, its musical references were often on point and natural.

From the moment we met Jazzy Jeff to both of Queen Latifah’s guest spots (as two different characters), we’ve run through our favourite musical moments from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the gallery above. Some feature big names. Other big laughs. But brief as a few might be, they all stick in our mind almost 20 years after the show’s run ended.

Let us know if we missed any in the comments!