Overview

• On June 22, Smith dropped by Charlie Sloth’s Fire in the Booth and delivered verses that fans connected to his 2022 Oscars slap of Chris Rock.
• His bars “If you talking crazy out your face up on the stage and disrespect me on the stage, expect me on the stage” and “Jokers dish it out, cry foul when it’s time to take it/ City full of real ones, wasn’t raised to fake it” are widely seen as allusions to the incident.
• The freestyle marks the latest in Smith’s use of music to revisit the episode after teasing the moment on tracks from his March album Based on a True Story.
• Smith’s actions at the 94th Academy Awards led to his resignation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a decade-long ban from its ceremonies.
• As of late June, Chris Rock has not responded to Smith’s new lyrics, leaving his musical reflections on the slap as the focal point of public debate.