It’s been almost exactly 20 years since Will Smith released his last album, Lost And Found—a period of time that’s seen him relentlessly pursue movie stardom, social media success, and then some other pursuits that have, let’s say, altered the brand of late. Now, though, Smith is committed to returning to music, having announced that his first new album in two decades, Based On A True Story, will arrive on March 28.
Smith has previously released a fair number of singles from the upcoming album, dropping three tracks in the lead-up back in 2024. (He performed one, “You Can Make It,” which was pretty hard not to read as an aggressive self-pep-talk, at the BET Awards.) Before that, his new music had mostly been confined to film soundtracks: He did a new single, “Light ‘Em Up,” for last year’s Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, and, of course, had two songs off the Aladdin soundtrack back in 2017, as anyone who’s had his version of “Friend Like Me” permanently burnt into their brain despite years of therapy well knows.
Smith announced the new album and the release date on Instagram, writing that, “It’s OFFICIAL!! My new album Based On A True Story drops March 28. TWO WEEKS!! Hit that presave. Been working on this project for a minute and I’m itchin’ to get it out to y’all.” More mysteriously, the attached album art also suggests that this installment might only be the first part of some kind of anthology, with the attached subtitled Season 1: R.I.T.W. We have no idea what that acronym is supposed to mean—Reputation In Tatters, Whoops?—but it certainly is suggestive that Smith will have more to unleash soon.
