WICKED WISDOM Frontwoman: 'I Love Having Freedom With This Music To Just Be Me'

January 21, 2006

WICKED WISDOM frontwoman Jada Pinkett-Smith (actress and wife of actor/rapper Will Smith) recently told The News-Times that the band's self-titled debut, due out Feb. 21 on 100% Woman/Suburban Noize, includes the song "Set Me Free", which is about misogyny in music; and "You Can't Handle This", which appears on the Ozzfest DVD.

The lead single, "Something Inside Of Me", was inspired by the 2002 kidnapping and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runyon in Stanton, Calif.

"She was found in the woods, just completely ravaged and left there like some kind of rag doll," Pinkett Smith recalled in a Jan. 6 interview from her Los Angeles home. "This was somebody's child. I remember being so broken up about it. I remember having to go to an event that day and being on the red carpet. I had to keep my composure. That wasn't a place that I was supposed to talk about that. It really upset me that we're in a society now that was so desensitized from such traumatic events. We are supposed to go on with our day and act like nothing happened.

"When I heard the track, her face came into my mind," she added. "That rage and that anger and all that hurt came about. I came up with the title 'Something Inside Of Me' — just all of those feelings that were inside of me that I couldn't talk about that day, or I wouldn't talk about. That track gave me a place to express it. This music and the stage gives me a place to talk about all of the things I want to talk about that might not be so P.C. on the red carpet, which is why I love doing this."

Though she wears makeup onscreen and at film premieres, Pinkett Smith doesn't enhance her look for concerts.

"I take my hair out of braids and I put on some clean clothes and I go onstage — and that's it," said Pinkett Smith, who has a stepson, Trey, 13, a son, Jaden, 7, and a daughter, Willow, 5. "It's just raw Jada. I hate when I have to (dress up) for the red carpet and I love having the freedom with this music to just be me, man. These kids, they don't care about what I have on. All they care about is, 'What are you coming with tonight?' That's it. They don't care about all that (other stuff). As long as I'm coming with something that they want to hear and I'm up on that stage making it happen for them, that's all that matters."

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).