Will Smith first reached a wide audience as the rapping half of the poppy, late-1980s hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. He soon crossed over to TV, with a starring role in the popular comedy series THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR. His subsequent path to movie stardom in the '90s (INDEPENDENCE DAY, MEN IN BLACK, etc.) seems inevitable in retrospect, but Smith never forgot his rap roots, continuing his recording career as a solo artist and notching up even more chart hits in the late '90s and into the next decade.