The 65th Grammy Awards celebrated 50 years of hip-hop, but Will Smith was absent from the tribute. According to Questlove, quoted by 'Variety', Smith was originally supposed to be a part of the tribute but had to back out due to his 'Bad Boys 4' production commitments.
"I'll give the spoiler alert away. Will Smith was a part of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting 'Bad Boys 4' this week," Questlove told Marc Malkin of 'Variety' on the red carpet.
"There were a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will." Questlove went on to say that he knew getting Smith for the tribute was "a shot in the dark", because the actor is "always shooting movies".
The four-time Grammy winner told 'Variety' that the celebration "had a lot of people, and some of them have other jobs," adding that Ice-T, Queen Latifah and L.L. Cool J were participating in the tribute but had to "leave their respective shows" to join the celebration.
The original tribute, Questlove said, was going to be 23 minutes long, but it had been cut down to 14 minutes. "It's going to be amazing," he promised viewers of 'Variety' from the red carpet.
Smith announced 'Bad Boys 4' earlier this week in a video with his franchise co-star Martin Lawrence, who proclaimed, "It's about that time!" Smith most recently starred in 'Emancipation' and won the Academy Award for best lead actor last year for his role in 'King Richard'.
Immediately after he slapped presenter Chris Rock live onstage at the Oscars 2022, Questlove won the Academy Award for best documentary for 'Summer of Soul'.