The enormous success of the duo's debut album attracted the attention of Jive Records, who signed the group, and Russell Simmons, who took the boys on tour alongside major acts on the Def Jam roster, such as Public Enemy and Run-DMC.
The following year, a new album was released, recorded entirely in London in the same studios used by Whodini a few years earlier and produced by the duo together with Pete Q. Harris and Bryan "Chuck" New. For the cover, it was decided to give more space to DJ Jazzy Jeff who takes center stage, with his name in blue at the top right and a part of the title in yellow referring to him, while The Fresh Prince reserves the back cover, with his name in red at the top left and a title referring to him in yellow.
Launched by the promotional single "Brand New Funk", the double vinyl is brought to a resounding commercial success by the second single, "Parents Just Don't Understand", which gets criminal television airplay by MTV that makes them authentic rap stars and leads the duo to be celebrated by the music mafia at the Grammys, winning the inaugural "Best Rap Performance" award in 1989 and unleashing a storm of negative criticism for an award that will be taken away already in 1991 after the victory of Young MC with "Bust a Move" in front of another piece of the Philadelphia duo, "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson" and especially in front of the great favorite "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy.
The whole project is an 83-minute bomb. By heart, I don't remember one of this duration in hip hop before: slightly higher than the debut album, this sophomore is fun and lively, breathes the sensational alchemy between DJ and rapper, returning playful, chill and easy-going vibes, the simple and light lyrics of Will Smith collides with the masterful production of Jazzy Jeff in a fantastic combination. There are the same vibes of the previous LP, the rapper's clean and smooth delivery meets no obstacles and when it falters, it finds the concrete seal of the producer's minimal funky music, which brings the weakest cuts back to the right path. Nothing to say about the duration that from the tracklist you can find excessive: the longer songs slide away more velvety than the others and aided by some musical variation and by the instrumental tracks of Jazzy Jeff, they constitute the best pop rap effort of the eighties.
Released by Jive with RCA distribution under the blessing of major label BMG, the album was certified double platinum in the US (triple in 1995) and platinum in Canada, driven by its lead single (gold record) and the third single, "A Nightmare on My Street": this track pays homage to Freddy Krueger and seems destined to be part of the soundtrack of the new film in the series, however, distributors New Line Cinema not only decide not to take the piece into consideration, they choose to sue the record label for copyright infringement and force the label to remove the music video created for the single. The album reached the fourth place on the Billboard 200, was positively received in the Australian and UK markets and is one of the best-selling rap albums of 1988, with merit.
Highlights: "A Nightmare on My Street", "Parents Just Don't Understand", "Let's Get Busy Baby", "He's the D.J., I'm the Rapper", "Hip Hop Dancer's Theme".
Rating: 8/10.
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