Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Jada Pinkett Smith’s new memoir, “Worthy,” is a page-turner that I could not put down. I thought I was going to skim through it, but every time I started to put it down, it kept pulling me back in. It’s a great book with all sorts of fireworks throughout. A lot of the leap-off-the-page revelations have been chronicled already, for example here and here but there are a lot of really interesting things in the book that you probably haven’t heard about. In no particular order:
1. Jada was really in these streets. She was a teenager in Baltimore in the mid-1980s, and she had no problem being tough. She writes: “The idea that I could gain some financial freedom by selling drugs just seemed practical to me.” Later she says, “I came to the conclusion that I could be as successful as any man.” She wanted to run her own operation. She says she wanted to be “a queenpin.”
2. She kissed Tupac and hated it. When they were still teenagers in Baltimore, she realized that even though she felt close to him, “there was no romantic chemistry between us … at all.” Even still, one day, they tried kissing. “The kiss lasted a few seconds before we both pulled away in mutual disgust. It felt wrong … It was literally like a sister and a brother trying to make out.” She loved Pac immensely but it never became physical.
3. Prince was a mentor to her. Early in her career — shortly after the 1994 release of “A Low Down Dirty Shame” where she had a major role — Prince came to her about possibly collaborating on a ballet/opera that he was working on. She writes, “What began as his interest in possibly collaborating on some project ideas soon turned into a beautiful, lasting friendship and shifted as well into his generosity to me as a mentor.” She says his…
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