Will Smith's Comeback Album Fails To Make Any Commercial Impact

Forbes

10-04-2025

Will Smith has been on a long and quiet journey back into the public eye since his infamous altercation with Chris Rock at the Academy Awards several years ago. After keeping a relatively low profile in the aftermath of that moment, he's been slowly re-engaging with audiences, and he recently stepped back into his first love, music. For Smith, hip-hop isn't just the genre that made him famous, it also may be the key to a redemption arc – or at least that's what he was hoping. Unfortunately, that plan isn't panning out quite the way he might have anticipated.
Smith's new album Based on a True Story is his first in two decades, but it makes virtually no commercial impact. Despite months of buzz and big name collaborations, the album just didn't hit with the American public in any meaningful way.
Based on a True Story ix Smith's first album since 2005's Lost and Found. The project was promoted with a steady stream of singles and features from major names in the music industry, including Big Sean, Joyner Lucas, and his own son Jaden. The Grammy winner tried to push the project properly, but even anticipation and what seemed like a fair amount of media coverage – at least in the music-focused press – couldn't move the needle.
The full-length doesn't make it onto a single Billboard ranking this week. Not the Billboard 200, not the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, not any genre-specific or consumption-specific tallies. For an artist of Smith's stature, that's a harsh result. He's still a household name, and with so much attention focused on the release, it felt like it could become at least a minor win. It didn't.
Throughout his music career, Smith has only released four prior solo albums. All of them made it onto the Billboard 200, and three even cracked the top 10. His 2002 effort Born to Reign stalled just outside that space, peaking at No. 13. A few years earlier, Willennium soared to No. 5 – his all-time peak – driven by hit singles and the momentum of his acting career.
Now, for the first time, he's released an album that doesn't make it to the all-genre tally. Based on a True Story also fails to send a single cut to the Hot 100. That's especially disappointing given the roster of collaborators featured on the set. Smith was never the biggest star on the Hot 100, but he has earned multiple top 10s and even a few No. 1s throughout his career. This time around, not one of the several official singles gained enough traction to appear on the tally.
Even though the album itself doesn't chart, a few of the tracks from Based on a True Story do manage to land somewhere. Three cuts from the set make a home on Billboard's Hot Gospel Songs chart, a tally that Smith was previously largely unfamiliar with.
Two brand new tunes — 'The Reverend (Rave Sermon)' and 'Rave in the Wasteland ' —debut at Nos. 8 and 22, respectively. At the same time, 'You Can Make It,' a collaboration with Fridayy and Sunday Service, reappears at No. 18. Smith claims a trio of the most-consumed gospel tracks in the country this week, which is a curious outcome for an effort largely pitched as a hip-hop project.