Jada Pinkett Smith provided a refreshing dose of the ‘90s in a recent social media post that featured both Tupac Shakur and Will Smith, whom she would ultimately marry.
In Wednesday’s Instagram post, Pinkett Smith shared a throwback video of herself and Shakur dancing along and lip syncing to DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince’s 1988 hit “Parents Just Don’t Understand.” (Smith was the Fresh Prince half of that rap duo.)
“Here is part of the original video of Pac and I doing a terrible job at lip syncing Parents Just Don’t Understand,” Pinkett Smith captioned the ‘90s nostalgia-filled video.
Pinkett Smith and Shakur, who died in 1996, met while attending high school together at the Baltimore School for the Arts, where they forged a close friendship.
In a separate Instagram post, the “Girls Trip” actor shared an excerpt Wednesday from her upcoming memoir, “Worthy,” discussing her relationship with Shakur and to the Grammy-winning song.
“Not in a million years would I have dreamed that the Fresh Prince and I would become, um, very acquainted. Not in a million years did I imagine three lives, their fates, would be so intertwined,” she wrote. “And… I never would have imagined that this video would become a tangible memory, of the last time Pac and I, were simply kids together.
“Pac and I lip syncing Parents Just Don’t Understand by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince during our Junior year in high school. Who would have thought?”
Pinkett Smith’s book is scheduled for an Oct. 4 release.
In a 2018 episode of “Red Table Talk,” Pinkett Smith opened up to her daughter, Willow Smith, and mother, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, about her relationship with Shakur. Pinkett Smith said she and the rapper shared an “instant connection” upon meeting and became “pretty much inseparable.”
“[Shakur] would have been 50 this year, and of course, I went down memory lane,” she said on the show. “Over the years, Pac wrote me many letters and many poems, and I don’t think this one has ever been published, honestly … I don’t think he would have minded that I share this with you guys.”
Pinkett Smith also recalled the moment she learned of her longtime friend’s death — during a trip to New York to see him — and the intense grief she experienced thereafter.
“A lot of people talk about my relationship with Pac and trying to figure that out,” she mused during the episode.
“That was a huge loss in my life because he was one of those people that I expected to be here. My upset is more anger … because I feel that he left me. And I know that’s not true, and it’s a very selfish way to think about it, but I really did believe that he was going to be here for the long run.”
Times staff writer Christi Carras contributed to this report.
