Will Smith starred in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for six years before the iconic show came to an end . During that time, Smith helped inspire Queen Latifah’s own popular 90s television series. Queen Latifah felt she could do ‘Living Single’ thanks to ‘The Fresh Prince’ Smith’s stint in The Fresh Prince not only showed that the rapper could carry his own sitcom.
Potentially, Smith also made other artists feel they could do the same. Queen Latifah would follow in his footsteps when she starred in her sitcom, Living Single , which enjoyed somewhat similar success. The ensemble sitcom lasted for five seasons, from 1993 to 1998, and showed Queen Latifah’s own promise as an actor.
But she credited Smith for showing that there was another career path for her in the first place. “I’ve got to give Will [Smith] a shout out,” Queen Latifah said in an interview with Variety . “It was because of Will that that we did Living Single .
As rappers, I toured with Will, and when Will got [ The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ], we were like, ‘Oh, if Will could do a show, we could do a show.’ So that was where it all began, with us starting to beat the pavement to try to create a sitcom.” Additionally, The Equalizer star felt the sitcom was a pivotal moment for the hip hop genre in general.
“ Living Single spoke to our generation,” she said. “It showed the hustle that we had, the desire to achieve and entrepreneurship. It showed hip-hop being validated, not as this pas.