Two sides of Jada
Glamorous red carpet actress meets heavy metal rocker
By David Friedman
NEWS-TIMES MUSIC WRITER

"While I was on Ozzfest, people were like, 'I'll never look at you
on the red carpet the same way again.' And I said, 'Good.'Ÿ"

— Jada Pinkett Smith

Wicked Wisdom vocalist


For many, up until last summer, the name Jada Pinkett Smith was tied
entirely to her film roles in "The Matrix
Reloaded," "Collateral," "Ali," "Scream 2" and "The Nutty
Professor," to name a few.

Older fans may have seen her in her 1993 film debut, "Menace II
Society," or on the '90s TV series "A Different World." Offscreen,
they saw her photos in magazines as she walked the red carpet, often
with her husband, rapper-actor Will Smith.

So upon learning that Pinkett Smith was moonlighting as a singer and
songwriter, fans may have figured she'd be glammed out onstage,
singing pop-infused R&B like Beyonce.

That isn't the case.

Instead, Pinkett Smith and her band, Wicked Wisdom, play hard
rock/heavy metal. The group, which played Ozzfest last summer, is
hitting the road opening for Sevendust on a tour that stops Jan. 26
at Toad's Place in New Haven.



The band's self-titled debut, due out Feb. 21 on 100% Womon/Suburban
Noize, includes the song "Set Me Free," which is about misogyny in
music; and "You Can't Handle This," which appears on the Ozzfest DVD.

The lead single, "Something Inside Of Me," was inspired by the 2002
kidnapping and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runyon in Stanton,
Calif.

"She was found in the woods, just completely ravaged and left there
like some kind of rag doll," Pinkett Smith recalled in a Jan. 6
interview from her Los Angeles home. "This was somebody's child. I
remember being so broken up about it. I remember having to go to an
event that day and being on the red carpet. I had to keep my
composure. That wasn't a place that I was supposed to talk about
that. It really upset me that we're in a society now that was so
desensitized from such traumatic events. We are supposed to go on
with our day and act like nothing happened.

"When I heard the track, her face came into my mind," she
added. "That rage and that anger and all that hurt came about. I
came up with the title 'Something Inside Of Me' — just all of those
feelings that were inside of me that I couldn't talk about that day,
or I wouldn't talk about. That track gave me a place to express it.
This music and the stage gives me a place to talk about all of the
things I want to talk about that might not be so P.C. on the red
carpet, which is why I love doing this."



Born Sept. 18, 1971, Pinkett Smith grew up in Baltimore, Md. Father
Robert Pinkett Jr. worked as a contractor; mother Adrienne Banfield
was a nurse. But the couple got divorced and Jada's life was far
from easy.

Pinkett Smith said her father was addicted to crack. Her mother, now
15 years clean, was a heroin addict. Growing up with such obstacles
kept Pinkett Smith grounded and in touch with the challenges common
people face each day.

"My drive and my motivation in life is to always help people to
overcome obstacles," said Pinkett Smith, whose grandmother was a
social worker. "That's what connects us as human beings and it's why
we live in communities and not by ourselves — because we need one
another for survival.

"Any time you disconnect yourself from the community, you die,
period," she added. "You just die, whether it's spiritually or
whatever. You have to stay connected to that substance that makes us
who we are and that connects all of us, no matter what your color,
economic background, neighborhood you live in — it doesn't matter.
We're all made of the same substance."

After attending Baltimore School for the Arts for high school,
Pinkett Smith attended college at North Carolina School for the Arts
for a year before moving to L.A. to pursue acting. To date, her
favorite role is playing one of four bank robbers with Queen
Latifah, Vivica A. Fox and Kimberly Elise in the 1996 crime
thriller "Set It Off."

In terms of songwriting influences, Pinkett Smith, who married Will
Smith in 1997, looks up to Ani DiFranco, Sting and Seal.



She started Wicked Wisdom in 2002 with lead guitarist Pocket Honore.
After recording soul-rock songs, the pair decided to go for a harder
sound. The band's lineup evolved to include bassist Rio Lawrence,
rhythm guitarist-keyboardist Cameron Graves and drummer
Phillip "Fish" Fisher.

A founding member of Fishbone — which fused funk, ska, reggae, punk
and metal — Fisher, 38, played in that band from 1979-98. He
performed on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Mother's Milk" LP in '89
and played on Fishbone's tours with Biohazard, Soundgarden and Stone
Temple Pilots.

Fisher, a fan of newer metal bands that include Meshuggah,
Killswitch Engage and Black Dahlia Murder, was touring with Les
Claypool's Frog Brigade when Wicked Wisdom got started. He knew
Pinkett Smith and her band mates, though, and attended their early
shows.

"At a certain point, it clicked to me that she was real serious
about doing something," Fisher said in a Jan. 6 interview from his
L.A. home. "I decided I would approach them about being a part of
it. I understood they wanted to be a lot harder than they were at
the time and I was down for that. She impressed me and that's why
I'm part of this project.

"(Rio and I), we've played together on other projects, but this one
is different for the genre of music," said Fisher, who is no longer
married and has two daughters, ages 4 and 3. "A lot of parts are
played extremely tight. We're trying to bring that precision and
also a feel that we don't think has really existed in the genre of
music that we're pursuing."


While an early version of Wicked Wisdom opened for Britney Spears on
her "Onyx Hotel" tour, the new lineup performed on 2005's Ozzfest.

Though she wears makeup onscreen and at film premieres, Pinkett
Smith doesn't enhance her look for concerts.

"I take my hair out of braids and I put on some clean clothes and I
go onstage — and that's it," said Pinkett Smith, who has a stepson,
Trey, 13, a son, Jaden, 7, and a daughter, Willow, 5. "It's just raw
Jada. I hate when I have to (dress up) for the red carpet and I love
having the freedom with this music to just be me, man. These kids,
they don't care about what I have on. All they care about is, 'What
are you coming with tonight?' That's it. They don't care about all
that (other stuff). As long as I'm coming with something that they
want to hear and I'm up on that stage making it happen for them,
that's all that matters."

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The show begins at 6:30 p.m., with Nonpoint and One also on the
bill. The venue is at 300 York St. Tickets are $25. Call etix.com at
(919) 782-5010.