Songfacts®:

• In 1989, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince won the first-ever rap Grammy for their lighthearted single "Parents Just Don't Understand." That song's video also did very well on MTV, with Will Smith proving quite adept in front of a camera. When it was finally time for a network TV show to incorporate hip-hop culture, Smith was an obvious choice.
  
  The show was The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, starring Smith as a streetwise kid from Philadelphia whose mother sends him to the wealthy enclave of Bel-Air, California to live with his aunt and uncle. It aired on NBC, which also had The Cosby Show, a wildly successful sit-com about an upper-class black family.
  
  NBC had Smith and his musical partner DJ Jazzy Jeff write the theme song, which became unquestionably their most popular work. The duo had no trouble writing it: Jeff programmed some beats and Smith came up with lyrics that explained the show's concept in succinct rhymes (Jeff claimed it took them only 15 minutes).
  
  The show earned decent ratings in its six seasons on the air but attracted a young audience coveted by advertisers and made a huge cultural impact. Long after its run, it stayed on the air in syndication.
• Running about 1:05, this is (to the best of our knowledge) the longest TV theme song of the '90s. It's a throwback to '60s TV themes like Green Acres, Gilligan's Island and The Beverly Hillbillies that laid out the premise in the lyrics. By the time The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air debuted, theme songs were getting shorter or getting cut completely, but other shows didn't star established rap artists, so it made sense to give Smith some room to rhyme.
  
  In this pre-DVR age of television, the theme song had to be quite memorable if it was going to take up much time, and this one was: Just about everyone who watched it knew all the words. The lengthy open left less time for show content, but The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air didn't need much time for plot development. Much of the show revolved around the wild antics of Smith and his cousin Carlton, played by Alfonso Ribeiro.
• You won't find this song on any of those "Greatest TV Themes" compilations, and it was never released as a single, at least in America. This is very unusual, since popular TV themes were surefire hits if they were extended and released as singles (here are some examples). It's likely that DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's record label, Jive, wouldn't allow it, since it would saturate the airwaves and detract from their record sales.
  
  An extended version running 2:57 appeared on YouTube in 2007, with additional lyrics describing Smith's journey.
  
  In 1992, a remix running 3:28 was released in the Netherlands, titled "Yo Home To Bel Air." It reached #4 and stayed on the chart for 15 weeks.
• The show was created by the husband-and-wife team of Susan and Andy Borowitz. Recalling the first time Smith played him the song he and Jeff came up with for the show, Andy said: "He just rapped it in front of me, and from that moment it really didn’t change at all. Not that I would’ve felt very comfortable telling the Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist what changes I, as a white guy, was going to recommend, but I really did like it."
• DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince kept their hip-hop duo alive while the show was on the air; their biggest hit, "Summertime," was released after the first season. Jeff made frequent appearances on the show as Will's friend Jazz; his scenes often ended in being forcibly ejected by Will's uncle Phil.
• The first episode used a longer version of the song, running 1:45 with these additional lyrics:
  
  I begged and pleaded with her day after day
  But she packed my suitcase and send me on my way
  She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket.
  I put my walkman on and said, 'I might as well kick it'.
  
  First class, yo this is bad
  Drinking orange juice out of a champagne glass.
  Is this what the people of Bel-Air Living like?
  Hmmmmm this might be alright.
  
  In subsequent episodes, Smith goes from:
  
  I got in one little fight and my mom got scared
  And said "You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air"
  
  to:
  
  I whistled for a cab and when it came near
  The license plate said "Fresh" and it had dice in the mirror
• Elements of this theme song were used throughout each episode of the show, often as transitions. These "cues" have writing credits assigned to Smith.
• Quincy Jones was the executive producer of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but he is not credited for writing or producing the theme.
• Like Eminem and his "mom's spaghetti" from "Lose Yourself," this became a popular copypasta meme on 4chan, where users would be tricked by a seemingly personal anecdote that turned into song lyrics. As early as 2004, unsuspecting readers would find themselves caught up in a story that always ended with someone becoming the prince of a town called Bel Air. The meme inspired several remix videos that cast Will Smith as royalty in other areas of pop culture, such as "The Fresh Prince of the Death Star" and "The Fresh Prince of the Matrix."
• The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air was rebooted in 2022 as Bel-Air, starring Jabari Banks in the title role. Will Smith is an executive producer of the series, which has more ominous tone than the original. It started airing on the Peacock network on February 13, the day of the Super Bowl. To promote it, Smith starred in a Super Bowl commercial where various folks put their own spin on the theme song.
• This East Coast rap tune shares a percussion element with the West Coast rap hit "Nuthin' But A G Thang": the vibraslap. Invented in 1967, the instrument's distinct rattle showed up on several classic rock songs before it ventured into hip-hop.
• A 2024 study by Spin Genie (per NME) analyzed the total number of streams, monthly listeners, and estimated earnings of TV's most popular theme songs to determine the highest earning one over the years. "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme Song" topped the list, with an estimated $751,100 earned from streaming alone.