It’s been almost exactly 20 years since Will Smith graced the music-loving world with “Wild Wild West,” inviting fans of 1999's biggest “cowboy secret agent fights a racist little person and his giant mechanical spider” movie to delight in such lyrics as “Any damsel that’s in distress, be out of that dress when she meet Jim West.” Now, to commemorate this incredible milestone—and also, we guess, the release of Disney’s latest, overwhelmingly unnecessary live-action remake of a classic cartoon property, Aladdin—Smith has decided to treat us to a brand new film-inspired rap track, the wonderfully batshit “Friend Like Me (End Title)”.
Disney released the Aladdin soundtrack on Spotify and Apple Music today, allowing fans to delight in mostly-listless recreations of classic Alan Menken tunes, including a version of “Arabian Nights” that Smith sounds actively embarrassed to be singing. But he definitively perks up with his return to the closing credits rap synopsis game, even despite an intro from noted cunnilingus hater DJ Khaled.
It’s hard to pinpoint a favorite moment of “Friend Like Me,” which, what with all its whispered, ASMR-y talk of wish fulfillment, ends up coming off like nothing so much as a sequel song to The Gorillaz classic “Clint Eastwood.” But we are partial to “Tell the angels and gods, pass the baklava”—a bold, nutty take on traditional theological thinking—and the repeated suggestions that genie-based magical assistance is the only way we’re ever going to fix climate change.
Of course, it’s important to note that all of this was already forseen: Comedian, songwriter, and avowed Smith fan Demi Adejuyigbe posted his own version of a Will Smith Aladdin rap back in Summer 2017; we note this both because Adejuyigbe’s song is just as funny as all of his fake movie songs so consistently are, and also so that we can all be clear that, yes, he’s already seen Smith’s version, so you don’t need to let him know.