House Party Star Reveals "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" Almost Never Happened
By The Urban Daily Staff
Posted Feb 28th 2011


In 1990 House Party became one of the first hip-hop buddy comedies ever and a benchmark in film for urban Gen-Xers.

Written and directed by Reginald Hudlin, this coming-of-age flick starred rappers Christopher "Kid" Reid and Chris "Play" Martin as two high school friends trying to pull off the ultimate house party.


While the concept was not totally new, the execution and style was unlike anything attempted before. Where their big screen predecessors were either raw, House Party had the right balance of emotion and humor.







Before Eminem earned accolades for his verbal confrontations in 8 Mile, Kid 'N Play had their own rap battle right in their living room, complete with choreographed dance moves!

The late Robin Harris as the loveable "Pop" and comedian Martin Lawrence as "Bilal," the reluctant DJ with a halitosis problem, buoyed the fledging rappers turned actors.

House Party grossed a respectable $26M during its box office run and spawned three sequels.









A little known fact is that the starring roles were originally meant for another up-and-coming duo, a rapper and DJ named The Fresh Prince (aka Will Smith) and his partner DJ Jazzy Jeff.

So, what happened? During a red carpet event for TV One, Christopher "Kid" Reid explained how he and Play were ultimately offered the movie and how they inadvertently returned the favor by backing out of a sitcom that went to become "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".








"Jazzy Jeff was correct in asserting that 'House Party' was originally offered to them. They declined, politely I'm sure because they're nice guys.

We just kind of stepped in, you know we're just two desperate guys from Queens (laughing). It's scary getting a real job so we were like 'Yeah, we will do it'.



It all kind of evens out because later on we were talking about doing a sitcom over at NBC. We backed out of that because they had canceled our cartoon series. We were pissed off and were like 'eh, we're not working with you.'

Will got that slot, 'The Fresh Prince' wound up becoming that so it all kind of evens out. Whatever happened to Will Smith anyway? (laughing)"

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/02/28/will-smith-fresh-prince-of-bel-air-house-party/

If DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince had made House Party I wonder if Will Smith would have still become a star or would it have become a career killer? And would The Fresh Prince of Bel Air have been as big a hit with Kid N' Play in the cast?

We'll never know.

Something isn't right. They were upset with NBC because they're cartoon was canceled? They opted not to do the sitcom because of the cartoon? That's not accurate considering that the cartoon debuted in the fall of 1990 right along with Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. By the fall of '91, the cartoon was gone.

Something isn't right. They were upset with NBC because they're cartoon was canceled? They opted not to do the sitcom because of the cartoon? That's not accurate considering that the cartoon debuted in the fall of 1990 right along with Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. By the fall of '91, the cartoon was gone.

I think he meant that they were offered a different sitcom at some point after they backed out of the Fresh Prince role.