Throwback Thursday: Will Smith – “Who Am I” (featuring Tatyana Ali & MC Lyte)

Throwback Thursday: Will Smith – “Who Am I” (featuring Tatyana Ali & MC Lyte)

Every now and then, a random and relatively obscure song from 20 years ago will come to mind — and stay there for days and even weeks.

Currently, that song for me is Will Smith’s “Who Am I” (featuring Tatyana Ali & MC Lyte). It was an album cut from the Fresh Prince’s second album as a solo act, Willennium.

Co-written and co-produced by Darkchild, the track is so very ’99. And lyrically, it is neither Will Smith nor MC Lyte’s best work. But that hook? I just can’t quit it.

Funny enough, other than the “wanna know, baby, who am I?” part of the chorus, I never really knew what Tatyana Ali saying, but even after two decades, the melody stayed with me. And that, ladies and gentelmen, is why I will always insist that the melody matters more than anything else.

Now that I actually know what the lyrics to the chorus are, I love it even. Because I am, in fact, fully educated and not the one to play with.