In 2005, when Willow Smith was only 5 years old, she had her first touringexperience, joining her mother Jada Pinkett Smith’s nu-metal band, WickedWisdom, on the road. “It’s not very popular knowledge, but she was out there— she was on Ozzfest,” says Willow, who turns 22 this month. “She did [hardrock] for many, many years, and she loved it and she did it with her entireheart… but she did struggle with a lot of pushback.”
Willow, sitting onstage with Yahoo Entertainment at a sold-out Grammy Museumevent previewing her own rock record, __, recalls the “racist and sexist”treatment her mom received from self-appointed rock gatekeepers — “white mencoming at her and telling her that she couldn ‘t be in this space. But shekind of stood up and did it anyway, and that was so inspiring to me,” Willowsays. “Me seeing her as a little child, with people screaming racial slurs ather while she’s onstage, booing her, throwing stuff at her — it felt like shewas doing activism. I felt, ‘I’m seeing activism right in front of my eyes.’And it taught me that music isn’t just music ; music is meant to push theculture. … Even at a very young age, that was clear to me, because I just sawit right there. Yeah, it was scary, but it made me value the craft in a waythat if I hadn’t seen that, I don’t feel like it would’ve gone as deep.”
It also made an impression on Willow that Wicked Wisdom was able to win over> hundreds of skeptics at every Ozzfest second-stage gig. “There were so many> people that didn’t because to like it, but just had love it!” she> marvels. “That was so beautiful to see: the change of people’s minds, the> change of people’s hearts. And I feel like that is true activism. … Being on> tour with her in such insane places, the memories are kind of fuzzy, but the> main feeling I remember is feeling so close to her, like it was us against> the world. … And that feeling was priceless.”
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Willow relived that feeling last year in a viral video, when she sang WickedWisdom’s “Bleed All Over Me” with the reunited band while her beaming motherproudly looked on. It was a torch-passing moment of sorts, and now Willow istaking on the rock world on her own with her fourth solo album, __ — herhardest effort yet, and “some of the most honest work I’ve done.” While Willowburst onto the pop scene more than half her life ago “(“How crazy is that?”)with her breakout bop “Whip My Hair,” she has since built a crediblediscography of genre-crossing work, also very much against the odds.
Willow points out that she’s been dabbling in rock since her 2015 debut> album Ardipithecus and really started going for it with the seven-string> track “Human Leach” off of 2017’s The 1st , but “I think that people just> sort of chose not to focus on that side of my music and chose to focus more> on the melodic, more R&B/neo-soul side.” She reveals that she has received> plenty of pushback herself, from her record label, for wanting to move in an> increasingly hard-rock direction. “I feel like I’ve never really fit in any> categories. I think that that is the issue, and so sometimes people> categorize me in not the right way. Which is all good. I stand 10 toes down> on who I am, and I’ve been here for a while, and I feel like I’m pretty> authentic when you see me and listen to my music.”
While Willow’s mother “came against a lot of physical violence,” even deaththreats, nearly two decades ago with Wicked Wisdom, “Nowadays, it’s over theinternet,” Willow gripes. “People just want to be mad and talk crap over theinternet. I feel like, yeah, that’s a little bit less dangerous than someonein your face trying to throw a broken bottle at you, but yeah, you stillexperience that racism.” For instance, she recalls an incident when System ofa Down bassist Shavo Odadjian reposted a clip of her playing the riff fromSOAD’s “Toxicity” on Instagram. “I was so, so happy. Like, I showed my mom. Iwas like, ‘Oh my goodness!’ And then I’m looking at the comments, and all ofthese old white men are just bashing it. It was so crazy.” Thankfully,Odadjian — who’d posted Willow’s clip with the caption, “I love how musictranscends all ages! Bravo @willowsmith you’re a real one!” — defended Willow,who was 20 years old at the time. “He was in the comments fighting back, like:’Unfollow me, bro. I don’t care what you think.’ … I literally was like, ‘I’msorry you got so much flak for it!’ I don’t know, for some reason I felt likeI had to apologize. But he was like, ‘No, it’s all good,’ and that was sobeautiful. I felt so supported.”
More recently, another one of Willow’s ’90s rock idols, Les Claypool,> complimented her “fine guitar pickin'” on an Instagram post of her jamming> on a Primus song, and she felt so supported that she “literally cried. I> shed a tear when I saw that he commented. I don’t like to take external> validation because that can turn into a black hole really, really quickly,> but I had to take that slight bit. because he’s literally my favorite.> Honestly, I will hold that in my heart forever. So, I’m going to hold that> with me forever.” (“Certified Young Fiery Lass” is now the bio on Willow’s> Instagram page.)
Willow doesn’t think it’s so unusual for a Black woman like herself to do rockmusic, even if it takes some rock snobs by surprise. “It’s definitely been aheavily dominated white male kind of arena for a while, but if you do yourresearch, there’s many, many beautiful people of color who kind of steamrolledthe genre in a beautiful way,” she points out. “Sister Rosetta Tharpe wasplaying the electric guitar in the 1940s, and people don’t really talk aboutthat. I feel like if we do our research and we really love music and we reallywant to look at the, beginnings of these things, we find some beautifulthings.”
In fact, Willow believes that disenfranchised people have the potential to> make the best rock music. “Women have a lot to be angry about — let’s> start there,” she grumbles, acknowledging that anger from women, “especially> Black women,” often isn’t accepted in the mainstream. “We really haven’t> been treated the best by society since basically the beginning. But I think> that we hold such a beautiful gift, which is to see life from a perspective> that isn’t an entitled perspective. And I think that that allows us to> create art that truly changes the way people feel.”
Of course, some doubters might expect Willow to act entitled, given herupbringing in a famous Hollywood family, as the daughter of Jada and WillSmith. But other than fondly remembering her mother’s former rock band, she’drather not talk about her parents, and just let her music speak for itself. “Ithink my biggest way of blasting all of those [accusations of nepotism] isreally spending time on the craft and really working on my musicianship,” shesays matter-of-factly. “You know, if someone can play, they can play, andthere’s really no in between. And so, I feel like when you really, really workon that, it’s undeniable. They can’t say you’re not talented.”
__is definitely a showcase for Willow ‘s immense talent, and the early> reviews from Rolling Stone , The Guardian and Consequence of Sound> have been stellar. It’s her most lyrically confessional record ever (“In the> past, I would just be super-super-esoteric, like every single lyric that I> wrote was just about spirituality and geometry,” she chuckles), whether it’s> on “slow, sad, drunk songs” like “Split” and “No Control” or the self-> critical singles “Maybe It’s My Fault” and “Curious/Furious.” And while she> says she’s “angry and sad about a lot of different things” and a sense of> “deep, deep existential dread connects all the songs,” __is “not a> depressing record. I don ‘t think sadness needs to be depressing. I think> sadness is an expression of ourselves in such a beautiful way. We push it> away so much, and I don’t feel like we should. We should honor our sadness> and we should honor our anger and we should honor our discomfort, because> it’s a part of us too.”
one __track, “Hover Like a Goddess,” is decidedly less angry or sad than theothers, but it especially took Willow out of her comfort zone. “I kind ofwanted to challenge myself to try to write like a sexy song, which is notreally something I do ,” she says with a nervous giggle. “But I just lovewomen and I just think they’re the best creations, and I just needed to make asong to fully express that.”
A collaboration with Chris Greatti, who’s known for his work with Yungblud,> Blink-182, Pussy Riot, and Poppy (“The album that Chris did with Poppy is> literally some of the best music I’ve ever heard,” raves Willow), __ seems> to be tapping into the Zeitgeist, at a time — 17 long years after Wicked> Wisdom — when guitar-driven rock is finally back in the mainstream. And> through rock, Willow is finding a new way to speak out , just as she does> alongside her mother when co-hosting Red Table Talk.
“I think there’s so much happening in the world right now in rock. The soul ofrock is this cry for change, and I feel like rap and rock kind of have thatsame foundation of like, ‘Some bad things are happening and we are mad aboutit, and we want to express this and we need you to know how we feel,’” musesWillow. “There’s so much trauma just in everyday life for us now. Like, weturn on our phones and we see what’s happening in Iran, we see what’shappening with climate change, we see what’s happening with so many Black menand women being killed against their wills. All of this crazy stuff is goingon, and we’re just angry and we want change. And I feel like art is the way toshow people that we want change.
“And so, I feel like it’s less about the genre, and more about that intent andthat underlying feeling that the youth is having right now. The world is notdoing too good right now … but we’re seeing it so clearly, and that angers usand makes us feel like we need to speak up. And I’m trying to scream and I’mtrying to shred on the guitar, to let everyone know we’re serious about this.”