Will Smith Says Prince Wanted To Start Company With Him & Jay-Z Just Hours Before His Death

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It’s the blockbuster company that was never meant to be. On a recent podcast, Will Smith recounted the details of a conversation he had with Prince on the last night of his life.

On the Broken Record podcast, Smith said that he and Prince talked about eight hours before the musical genius was found dead at Paisley Park, his suburban Minneapolis entertainment complex. The death stunned his fans and inspired global mourning and multiple tributes. Smith said Prince was pitching him on joining forces on an entertainment company with Jay-Z attached, telling him the rap mogul was already on board.

“I talked to Prince eight hours before he died,” Smith said around the one-hour mark. “He called, and he was pitching. He was saying that me, him and Jay-Z should start an entertainment company. And he said that he had talked to Jay and he wanted to do it. We talked that night, and in the morning – he was gone.”

It’s hard to fathom what the three could have accomplished together, given their combined footprint in the music and entertainment industry. It hearkens back to a time when Jim Brown and Richard Pryor collaborated on Indigo Productions, though Brown was later fired from the company. At the time, it was viewed as a way for African Americans to assume more control over their output. (Ironically, they had the chance to produce Purple Rain, but Brown didn’t want to do it).

Prince was well known for his activism in the music industry, writing ‘Slave’ on his face in the ’90s and battling with his record label, Warner Bros., for control of his master recordings. He advocated for others to own their masters, something that remains a rarity. A few white artists, including David Bowie and Frank Zappa (now controlled by their respective estates,) and Bruce Springsteen did.

Given his history, Prince likely thought that the three could consolidate their respective power in the industry to do more entertainment productions that they could finance or raise money outside of the record label and studio system. Jay-Z co-owned the Roc-A-Fella label, as well as its Roc Nation offshoot. And Smith owns Overbrook Productions which has been behind most of his recent film projects. Michael Jackson famously bought a portion of the Beatles catalog, which reportedly upset Paul McCartney, who reportedly told him about the value of publishing.

Smith and Jay have worked on productions together, including an Emmitt Till limited series in 2020, and both invested in Landis Technologies in 2021, a company that hopes to turn renters into homeowners by offering them homes and helping them retain them until they can save up to own.

But a company with all three invested could have been a powerhouse.

Smith says that he also met Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Smalls for the first time a few hours before he was killed outside the Peterson Automotive Museum post-Soul Train Awards party in 1997. Despite speculation and numerous conspiracy theories, the murder remains unsolved. Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace, passed away last week at the age of 78.

Will Smith Says Prince Wanted To Start Company With Him & Jay-Z Just Hours Before His Death  was originally published on ionecassius.staging.go.ione.nyc