Watch Will Smith Perform “Men In Black” During J Balvin’s Coachella Set
This year’s first Coachella weekend wrapped up last night. As usual, the fest was full of random surprise cameos, including Billie Eilish with Lana Del Rey, Childish Gambino and A$AP Rocky with Tyler, The Creator, Olivia Rodrigo with No Doubt, Paris Hilton with Vampire Weekend, and Sky Ferreira with Kevin Abstract. The mast random, however, was probably Colombian reggaeton star J Balvin bringing out Will Smith for “Men In Black.”
J Balvin played Coachella’s main stage just before last night’s headliner Doja Cat, who had a few surprise guests of her own. Near the end of his set, Balvin dedicated a giant production to “Men In Black,” the theme song from Will Smith’s 1997 blockbuster. It was the first single that Smith ever released under his own name, after years as half of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, and it seems like Smith hadn’t performed that song in at least 20 years before last night. Smith didn’t just pop up onstage and rap the song. He wore full costume, and the stage had a giant alien head and dancers dressed up as aliens and MIBs. At the end of the performance, Smith and Balvin did the dance steps from the video, and then Smith flashed the audience with one of those memory-eraser rays.
In real life, Will Smith probably wishes he had a memory eraser. Smith has been keeping a relatively low profile since he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars a couple of years ago. But Smith has a new Bad Boys sequel coming out, so he’s back in charm-offensive mode, which leads to unexpected occurrences like this. His daughter Willow also joined Jon Batiste’s set earlier in the weekend.
Watch the “Men In Black” performance below.