Will Smith, the rapper and Academy Award-nominated actor, turns 47 on Friday September 25!

Although many of us were introduced to him as Cousin Will on “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” Smith actually started his career in 1987 as an MC performing alongside DJ Jazzy Jeff.

In the mid to late 80’s, Smith helped hip-hop merge clean rap lyrics with pop music tracks. Smith’s been recording music since — though it’s been ten years since his last album — and many of his songs are our favorite jams to this day.

Here are 10 of his best singles that prove Smith is undoubtably the Fresh King of hip-pop.

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