Damon Dash says Will Smith has “turned from a superhero to a villain” by slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars and says he needs therapy.
Dash, the co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, said he almost couldn’t believe Smith’s behavior during Sunday’s live telecast.
He tells Page Six, “I will tell you this — ten years ago, five years ago, one year ago, if I ever heard that Will Smith got up and smacked somebody I would not believe it.
“It’s almost like when a superhero turns into a villain or when a wrestler goes from being a good guy to the bad guy.
“It is almost seen as the shift of Will Smith. It is like he’s sick of being a good guy I guess. Will is tired of being a punk and he exploded and Chris Rock got it.”
Dash continues of Smith, “It’s also internalizing a lot of trauma that he didn’t recognize and he overreacted to other things that bothered him.
“So more than likely I could say he could use a little therapy because he lost control of his emotions.
“The world is a different place. I know if that was me and Kanye I would’ve walked out in cuffs and Kanye would’ve walked out in a straight jacket.”
The biggest night in Hollywood was tainted when Smith smacked comedian Rock after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head. She has openly talked about suffering from alopecia.
Rock said, “Jada, I love you, ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it,” Smith first laughed about the joke, but his smile turned to rage when he saw his wife roll her eyes.
Despite the violent incident, Smith returned to his seat and went on to win an Oscar for best actor for the film, “King Richard,” delivering an emotional speech and receiving a standing ovation. After the slap Rock managed to recover his composure to give out the Oscar for best documentary, and then immediately left the awards.
Dash says he initially believed the assault was a stunt, “I thought they was playing … all the police at the Oscars and security and he ran up on Chris like that. I did not think they were serious. They couldn’t been serious. If they were serious, man if it was real where’s the police?”
He continues, “If I smack somebody at the Oscars on TV I wouldn’t even been able to sit back down.”
Noting that, “Showcasing us as a culture fighting is not a good thing,” Dash said he didn’t like to see Black people fight, especially on a world stage, “I never been a fan of other cultures judging us and us being so happy for their approval.”
He adds, “There’s a lot of times I wanna smack a lot of motherf–kers. I never walked up on the stage and smack somebody and then got a standing ovation the next f–king second.”
