The Will Smith image-rehabilitation tour ramped up over the weekend with the release of “You Can Make It,” a stormy gospel rap tune featuring Philadelphia singer-songwriter Fridayy (DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” Lil Baby’s “Forever”) and Ye’s Sunday Service. Arriving just weeks after Bad Boys: Ride or Die unveiled the dancehall-and-breakbeats Sean Paul collab “LIGHT EM UP,” “You Can Make It” signals Smith’s interest in releasing a new album somewhere on the horizon, his first since 2005’s Lost and Found. A live performance of the single provided the obligatory gospel pop at last night’s BET Awards, where Smith rapped atop scorched earth encircled by flames about overcoming nebulous trials and tribulations: “The harder the fall, the higher you soar / God opens a window when the devil closes the door / Believe me, they tried to bleed Will Smith / In the rearview, I see adversity was the gift.” The choir leaned over him offering words of motivation, and rain doused the flames as Kirk Franklin marched up to a stage beating back smoke with an orange glow, like sunlight dissolving cloud cover.
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