ROCK CHICK
Jada Pinkett Smith reflects on her Wicked Wisdom metal days and the backlash
She was one of the few black women in the genre of music
Jada Pinkett Smith has made headlines over the last year for her relationship with Will Smith, but there’s more to the actress and host than her drama. The 52-year-old has lived an exciting life, and in the 2000s, she fronted the nu-metal band Wicked Wisdom. She was one of the few black women in the genre of music.
The actress was a guest on NPR’s podcast It’s Been A Minute, where she reflected on those rock days. The band released their debut album in 2006, and she toured with Britney Spears in Europe, at venues and music festivals in the US and internationally, and notably, at Ozzfest, one of the most prominent heavy metal festivals in the country.
Fans of the genre didn’t welcome her with open arms; she even received death threats and would have visits by neo-Nazis. “It was really intense. I mean, at that particular time, I don’t know of any other Black female in that particular genre except for [Skin from] Skunk Anansie,” she explained.
“I had so many strikes against me. I was a woman, first of all, because even as a white woman, you have a hard time in that job. Then I’m a Black woman. And then I’m a woman from Hollywood, which is the antithesis of rock & roll. I was the representation of the machine itself,” Jada continued.
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When they showed up to perform, there were some confused faces, but “neutral” faces; the group would win over. “Sometimes we’d come out. You’d get called names, people throwing bottles. And the neutral was like, you could win them over. If you have neutrality, there’s a space for love to grow,” she explained. “And then as we started going, there were people who were Wicked Wisdom fans that you would never expect... I’m talking about bald-headed, tatted dudes.”
Jada’s rock past is something her daughter Willow Smith has followed in her footsteps. It could be because she grew up watching her perform. “I used to bring her into the club. I would have her on the shoulders of, like, one of my security guards,” Jada told the host. “She just loved it. I mean, she would be, like, freaking, 5, 6 years old.”
Willow hasn’t released any metal music, but Jada says she has some in her pocket. “She didn’t even put out some of her heaviest stuff. She’s got some really hardcore metal - like, metal - that is out of this world. And I just love it because, for a woman, I think a woman needs space to rage out. I think, too often, we’re told as women that, no, no, no, you’re not allowed to be intense in that way,” she continued.
