“Yo homes, smell ya later”

Biography

TV's Hottest TeensTV’s Hottest Teens: Fresh Prince
Wallner
1992

Submitter: “A young patron wrote inside the cover “this book sucks”. Will Smith was going by Fresh Prince then ( I forgot that).”

Holly: You all know the theme song to Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, don’t you?   I used to sing along, word for word.

Will Smith was born in 1968.  That means he was 24 when this book was written.  True – he played a teen on TV in 1992 – but he’s 41 now!  Teens who find this on library shelves now do not know him as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.  They know him as Hancock, Hitch, or the super cool guy in I Am Legend.  In fact, pretty much everything Will Smith has done – other than Fresh Prince and an afterschool special – happened after 1992.  There are lots of more current choices about Will Smith for a library collection.

Young patron was right – this book does suck.

  1. Actually, a lot of teens do know him as the Fresh Prince because those shows are on in after-school and late-night reruns, just like Happy Days was for me in the late 80s. It doesn’t make this book any better or more relevant, and it certainly should be weeded, but I know many teens who could sing that theme song to you.

    1. I don’t have cable but when I visited my parents a couple of weeks ago it seemed like Fresh Prince was on all the time. I think it’s on The N, that Nick at Night channel that’s permanently Nick at Night, and TBS.
      He *is* the Prince of Bell-Air.

  3. There may also be other libraries like ours that have the DVDs on the shelf. Or some of them. We have Season 1 anyway.

  4. Huh? Pretty much everyone my age (21) knows about the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and they can all do the rhyme and everything. Maybe it’s a UK think.
    In fact, it’s so current, I thought it was a new thing. I had no idea it was from the 80s!

  6. This is always a problem with biographies of contemporary stars–they become dated so quickly. I was just shelving some “Rising Stars of the N.B.A.” books the other day and noticed that a couple of the players aren’t even playing anymore.

  7. I’m so torn about biographies of contemporary celebrities. They go out of style so fast. I try to get cheap paperbacks, but it’s not always possible. I tried magazines, but I work in school libraries so some parents object to the content in popular magazines at the elementary school level. Any suggestions?

  8. When I started working for a certain public library back in 1989, they still had a bio of Leif Garrett. It was finally weeded out two years later.

    1. Isn’t he the dude from The Smoking Gun Presents The World’s Dumbest?

      That’s the only place I know him from. The guy with the Captain Jack Sparrow eyeliner, right?

      1. I don’t know about that show. You should do some Googling about LG – you might find some more interesting stuff.

      2. Ha ha- that’s him! I remember him from the Tiger Beat days, tho-
        Still love Fresh Prince, as do all of my young co-workers.

  9. I don’t know why, but this made me laugh right out loud. I love the expression on his face. : )

  10. Someone ten years younger than me heard about Will Smith releasing a single and responded: “What’s with all the actors who think they’re musicians? Will Smith thinks he can sing now?” I had to explain that he’s been doing this music thing for awhile…

  13. Thank you so much for posting this! I especially love the “yo homes, smell ya later” title. I do believe kids now are still fans of Fresh Prince, but I remember watching it when i was 8 years old so its definitely a weeder, but what great memories.

  14. He’s the same age as me – and I definitely wasn’t a teen in 1992 either!

    That means it was a strange book even when it was new…

  15. This book looks fantastic. My personal favorite book I owned (a friend stole it from my apartment clearly out of jealousy) similar to this is “Mario Lopez: High Voltage Star.” These TV books courtesy of Scholastic Book Clubs made my day as a kid… and adult.