Jaden Smith

Jaden Smith, the youngest son of Hollywood actor Will Smith, lives life a little differently, and so does his popular family. After all, when it comes to living the high life, no one does it better than Hollywood’s elite. Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, also known by the mononym Jaden, was thrust into the spotlight at a young age, and experienced fame and glamour from birth itself. Given that his parents are reportedly worth a combined $320 million, according to media reports, it’s no surprise Jaden has experienced all the finer things in life at a very young age and enjoyed it.

Born in Malibu, California, to actors Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith, Jaden attended New Village Leadership Academy before being home-schooled by his parents. Jaden has an older half-brother, Trey Smith and a younger sister, Willow Smith. Growing up, he was fascinated by his parents’ film career and showed interest at a very young age to pursue it. But soon he realized that this took a toll on him when he was left all by himself when his actor parents were on work. He has spoken about this loneliness widely in the media.

Before fame could catch up with the Smith siblings, Jaden, his brother and sister were youth ambassadors for Project Zambi, which provides assistance in conjunction with Hasbro for Zambian children orphaned by the life-threatening disease AIDS.

Smitten by the film bug, Jaden made his major role debut in the 2006 film, The Pursuit of Happyness, for which he won an MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance in 2007. The same time along with Abigail Breslin, he presented two awards at the 2007 Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. In 2008, he appeared in the remake of the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still alongside Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. In 2010, he starred in The Karate Kid opposite the legendary Jackie Chan.

With his father not only an actor but a singer and rapper, was music a career choice for Jaden to take up? Jaden knew only better as he considered his father, Will Smith, as an inspiration. He stated in an interview, “He started in music and transitioned to movies. I started with movies, and transitioned into making music, I look at him and use it as a blueprint of how good of a person he is, but not necessarily the success that he reached.” Will Smith is famous for the 1997 song Men In Black from the film of the same name and the funky up-tempo track Getting’ Jiggy With It. Thereafter Will Smith released four solo albums and almost a dozen albums with DJ Jazzy Jeff and other musicians.

In 2010, Jaden made a name for himself when he rapped alongside Justin Bieber on the song Never Say Never, a song that peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified 5× platinum in the U.S. on 1 October 2012, Jaden released his debut mixtape, The Cool Café, and a sequel to The Cool Café on 8 November 2014, titled CTV 2.

With a lot of music in his kitty, Jaden started work on his debut studio album in 2014, which finally saw a release to much fanfare. He named it Syre (taken from his middle name) with a lead single of the same name, followed by three more singles, Batman, Watch Me and Falcon.

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