About

Fresh Prince of X is a series of mash-ups based on various songs set to the vocal track from the theme to the American sitcom series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as performed by Will Smith. The remix song series is derived from the bait-and-switch copypasta Bel-Air which initially became widespread through 4chan's /b/ as early as in 2004.

Origin

Airing from 1990 to 1996 on NBC, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air starred the then rapper Will Smith as a fictional version of himself who is made to move to Bel Air after getting in "one little fight", scaring his mom. The famous theme song written by Will Smith himself and QD3, recounts the backstory behind the series in musical form, and is also a popular subject for bait and switch copypastas.

On October 10th, 2006, "Fresh Prince of The Death Star" was uploaded to YTMND by State-of-mind^[1]. Featuring a mash up of "The Imperial March" by John Williams from the Star Wars series and Smith's vocals from the Fresh Prince theme song, the site essentially set the standard for other mashup YTMNDs that followed afterwards.

Spread

In January 2007, YTMND user LazyTown4 uploaded "Fresh Prince of LazyTown," a mashup song which combines the tune of "Cooking by the Book" and the vocal track from the original theme. In the following month, "Fresh Prince of Six Flag" was uploaded on February 4th, 2007, set to Vengaboy's eurodance track "We Like to Party" originally featured in a Six Flags commercial.

After the launch of YouTube, numerous YTMND derivative sites were transplanted into the video-sharing site and many new original creations were uploaded as well. One of the first notable YouTube uploads was titled "The Daft Prince of Punk-Air," uploaded on July 5th, 2008 and set to Daft Punk's 2001 hit single "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger."

In the following years, hundreds of additional remixes surfaced on YouTube, some of the most popular examples including The Fresh Prince of the Mushroom Kingdom^[3], The Fresh Prince of the Matrix^[4], Fresh Prince Roll'd ^[5] and Thomas the Tank Engine vs. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ^[6].

Notable Examples

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song has been set to a wide range of pop music hits and classic video game tunes. The series is usually recognizable through the album covers which feature Will Smith's face.

Search Interest

Due to the high volume of search queries for the 1980s sitcom series with a similar name, it is difficult to isolate the level of online interest in the remix phenomenon apart from the TV show.

External References