Will Smith- “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit’ It”
From his album Big Willie Style

I was listening to this recently—for an aborted column about Will Smith being the rap version of Billy Joel—and I couldn’t stop thinking about this one line:

“Cig-a-cigar right from Cuba Cu-ba
I just bite it
It’s for the look—I don’t light it”

To my knowledge, no one has ever discussed this moment—probably because Smith starts rapping in Pig Latin right after it, rendering any argument invalid. I would suspect he wanted to conjure an image of a fat cat toasting his own success with a status symbol of elitism. Then, being the Fresh Prince, he worried about the effect that idea would have on kids and his own image, and he backtracked. Don’t worry, guys. I don’t actually smoke.

However, isn’t it more harmful to suggest that cigars are so cool that you would carry one around despite the fact that you don’t smoke? An adult at the height of fame and fortune still feels as if a cigar would lend him some cachet that he doesn’t already have? Kids, even if you’re the biggest movie star in the world, you still aren’t cool enough without a cigar. And you’re not the biggest movie star in the world, so you might as well light up. In a puffed-up song, it’s an insecure line, and it kind of breeds further insecurity.