Published December 2001 

ALI

The first hip-hop rhyme I ever memorized was when Will Smith/Fresh Prince rocked the mic with the lyrics: "Threw on my FILA underwear and my FILA hat, ran downstairs and kicked the FILA cat." Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince -"Girls Ain't Nothin' but Trouble."

Hardly deep stuff, but, over a decade later, you still remember Will Smith. Seems he's always been there, on the radio, on the TV, on the big screen. And in a culture that quickly devours the flavour of the month and spits it out even quicker, Will Smith has done something that many superstars find it hard to do; be around year after year.

So it's no surprise that Will Smith, the biggest black actor in the world, is about to play the biggest sports/cultural/political/sexual black figure of our time on the biggest stage in the world - the cinema. But he had to be begged to do it, "They (Ali's people) sent me a script and I thought it was great, but I thought I can't play ALI. He's the greatest of all time, but then he called me and just the look in his eye, I just knew that I had to give him the story that deserves to be told."

Indeed it is a story that deserves to be told. And while Hollywood finds time to turn out biopics on the likes of two-bit dope dealers (BLOW) and two-bit porn stars (Boogie Nights), it's a shame that it's taken this long for Ali's life to come to the big screen.

But at least Hollywood seems intent on getting it right. Michael Mann is an exquisite director (The Insider, Manhunter), the budget has that magical 100 million dollar price tag to it, and Will Smith is a bona fide global superstar who's only going to get bigger. As a matter of fact, Will's gotten bigger already after having changed his body to play Ali. "Yeah, at this point I'm pretty gunned up. I'm 217 lb., a good 20 lb. heavier than I've ever been, stronger than I've ever been."

Will's physique is definitely a far cry from that of the skinny rapper from Philly who was Def Jam's first rapper who wasn't from New York. And like a pro, Smith parlayed rap stardom into TV stardom before jumping onto the big screen to save the world. Twice. A task that's usually reserved for white guys. And now Smith is about to be larger than life once more.

Perhaps the success of the unearthed Ali documentary, When We Were Kings, signaled to Hollywood that the public was ready to see Ail the movie. And, like Will Smith, Ail is an icon that has transcended race and class and time, and ironically probably THE quintessential AMERICAN icon.

For what is more American than Ali's life. His socio-political trajectory soared through history. Born poor, he achieved wealth and fame in the true Horatio Alger mold. Represented the best of America when he won Gold in the 1960 Olympics and detested the worse of America when he refused to fight in Vietnam. Married and divorced time and time again, eventually finding salvation in a higher power. A true loner. Ali's life, with all its turbulence that was only weathered by a strong will, is what America is all

about, or at least what they say they're all about. Why he was even deified in that most American of mediums, the comic books, when he took on Superman himself.

So here we are, 40 years after Cassius Clay a.k.a. Ali stepped into the collective ring of our consciousness with one of his trademark quick rhymes that, along with his quick fists, would make him one of the most famous people on the planet. Here we are, ready to accept him there again, this time via celluloid. And the man given this daunting task of being the vessel for the reincarnated myth of Muhammad Ali, a man that rocked heads inside the ring, is a skinny kid from Philly who used to rock the mic."

Tell us what you think. word@wordmag.com

<Back to top>