Like Mother, Like Daughter: Willow Smith Releases New Punk Song That Reminds Us Of Jada’s Heavy Metal Band Days
Willow Smith released a new track entitled “Transparent Soul” featuring Travis Barker. The song reminds us that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Her mother, actress and artist Jada Pinkett-Smith formed a heavy metal rock band called Wicked Wisdom in 2002. Willow has been making music for many years that is generally classified as Alternative, and lends inspiration from other genres of music. Though her father Will Smith also began his career as an artist creating timeless records like “Summertime”, fans most likely never made the connection that her mom is who she takes after musically.
“Transparent Soul” was released yesterday (April 27) with notable Blink-182 drummer and producer, Travis Barker. It’s a pop-punk single, which she discusses seeing right through the madness in someone. The heavy rock drums and guitar riffs that keep the song moving are perfectly paired with Willow’s vocals. The visuals that accompanied the release are captivating. Willow is seen in one eye-grabbing photo with a hand-painted guitar with blue hues of the galaxy, a 2000’s inspired punk outfit and blue lipstick with the heavy dark liner to match the aesthetic.
We anticipate an entire punk rock album is underway for Willow, and “Transparent Soul” was just the leading single into a new artistic universe for the 20 year old artist.
Fans are grateful for the tunes, and it has us wondering how she has evolved into the expressive artist we know and love today. Willow released “Whip My Hair” in 2010, and she notably rebelled by chopping all of her hair off to create in ways that were more authentic to who she was and not necessarily what her dad may have desired for her artist career. It seems like she’s fully blossomed and discovered a space that is true to her, and ironically similar to her mom’s brief metal rock band days.
Jada Pinkett-Smith, also known as Jada Koren, was the lead vocalist for her band Wicked Wisdom. The band is composed of Jada on lead vocals, Pocket Honore on guitars, Cameron “Wirm” Graves on guitars and keyboard, Rio Lawerence on bass, and Philip “Fish” Fisher on drums. Honore, Graves and Lawerence also provide backup vocals for Jada.
Fans may have been shocked to discover Jada lived a full life of Rock and roll, but to their surprise, the band was pretty successful. Wicked Wisdom landed a spot in pop princess Britney Spears’ 2004 Onyx Hotel Tour. The band opened for Spears European tours in April and May 2004. At the time, they were promoting one of their two albums entitled My Story, which was released the same year.
The band wasn’t well-received by everyone. Sharon Osbourne, wife of heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, was impressed when she saw Wicked Wisdom perform in one of the many Los Angeles club shows in 2005 and realized how passionate Jada and the band were about heavy metal. Subsequently, Sharon Osbourne booked Wicked Wisdom to perform on hard rock and heavy metal music festival Ozzfest in 2005. Unfortunately, serious heavy metal fans were not pleased with the band’s appearance. Fans believed the band hadn’t garnered enough credibility to perform on that stage just yet, but eventually their attitude became more positive as word of mouth about the band became widespread. Jada, herself, was apprehensive to perform at first but she was open to the thought and took on the opportunity.
Wicked Wisdom eventually changed their name to Wicked Evolution as speculations about the band working on another album circulated when Jada was seen in a recording studio in September 2011. Fans came to realize that Jada was supporting her daughter Willow in completing her album Adripithecus.
The band was actively creating music until about 2011, but surely the three generation trio’s popular Facebook show Red Table Talk has taken a bit more time and dedication. Jada grew up listening to metal and hard rock as a child, particularly citing Metallica and Guns N’ Roses as some of her earlier influences. She wondered why there were no female metal acts, and eventually decided to created Wicked Wisdom/Evolution.
The mother daughter duo are a force both together and a part, so it doesn’t surprise the world that Willow is taking up space in the rock universe. Check out Willow’s latest song “Transparent Soul” below.
