I like pretty girls,” raps 56-year-old Romeo Will Smith in his pungent new single, “Pretty Girls”. The song, released last week, represents the latest step in the Men in Black star’s ill-fated return to music after an absence of nearly two decades. In it, Smith raps bluntly about his omnivorous lust for the opposite sex. In the equally dismal music video, he can be seen blissfully dancing with – or simply ogling – an assortment of women, some decades younger than him.
It’s a video that calls to mind Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s infamous smash hit “Blurred Lines” – now more than 12 years old – not only in its seedy vibe, but the look of it: dancing women before a plain, white, void-like background. Some moments in the video see Smith reduced to a tiny size, while beautiful women tower over him a little fetishistically. (Call it “Honey, I Shrunk the Lothario”.) Lyrically, it’s just as off-putting, and witless to boot: “Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, lemon/ Alright, f*** it, I like women,” he raps.
