Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s hip-hop origin story is getting the TV treatment with ‘215’
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The scripted series will follow two Philadelphia friends as they chase a record deal while helping shape the city’s hip-hop scene.
Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s meteoric rise from hip-hop wunderkinds in Philadelphia to historic Grammy wins, TV success and international fame is set to become its own TV series.
On Tuesday, Smith’s Westbrook Studios production company announced “215,” a scripted series loosely based on the duo’s rise in hip-hop, was in the works. Per Deadline, “215” is the first project in a partnership between Westbrooks Studios and The Malar Group, founded by Sayan Navaratnam.
The show will chronicle Smith and Jazzy Jeff (real name Jeffrey Townes), a quick-witted rapper and his DJ friend, as they go in search of a record deal, money and a chance to help establish Philadelphia hip-hop. Along the way, they encounter friends who lift them, hometown loyalty, instant fame, various challenges and situations that hold the two together or don’t.
DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince were one of hip-hop’s first crossover acts, selling 5 million records from 1984 to 1994 and releasing hit albums like “He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper.” The duo won hip-hop’s first Grammy in 1989 for Best Rap Performance with “Parents Just Don’t Understand.” However, since the award wasn’t televised, Smith and Townes famously boycotted the ceremony along with other notable hip-hop acts such as Salt-N-Pepa and LL Cool J.
“We don’t have the problem with the Grammy as an award or the Grammys as an institution, we just had a problem with the 1989 design of the awards show,” Smith told Entertainment Tonight in a 1989 interview. “We chose to boycott. We feel that it’s a slap in the face.”
Jeff added, “They said there wasn’t enough time to televise all of the categories. They televised 16 categories and, from record sales, from the Billboard charts, from the overall public’s view, there’s no way you can tell me that out of 16 categories, that rap isn’t in the top 16.”
While Smith kept “The Fresh Prince” moniker for both “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and its 2020 reboot for Peacock, “215” brings the story of one of hip-hop’s most notable duos back to where it all began.
“Westbrook has always been focused on developing stories with strong characters, distinctive worlds and a clear point of view,” Terence Carter, President of Television, Westbrook Studios, said in a statement. “215 is especially meaningful to us because it draws from the rise of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince and celebrates Philadelphia during such a defining era in the city’s late-’80s/early-’90s hip-hop scene. The Malar Group shares our approach to storytelling, and this partnership gives us the opportunity to build a slate together with intention, beginning with a project rooted in friendship, ambition and the integrity of this specific time and place.”