It was the slap heard around the world as Will Smith laid the smackdown on Chris Rock during the 94th Academy Awards after the latter made a joke about the former's wife. And even if an apology has been sent out by the actor, there are countless debates and discussions happening in the industry on what should be done about Smith's behavior during the incident.

Will Smith, Chris Rock, Oscars, Entertainment

The thing is, this isn't the first time Smith had beef with someone. As a matter of fact, there are four other feuds the actor had been in before slapping Chris Rock. We take a deep dive down below how these fights started at important points of Smith's legendary career.

A mischievous reporter who tried to kiss Will Smith

Despite being known as one of Hollywood's good guys, there are a few moments Smith has lost it in public. Along with his slap on Rock, there was this one time when the actor did the same. This time, though, the slap landed on a ‘reporter'.

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During the premiere of Men In Black 3 in Moscow in 2012, a Ukrainian prankster posed as a reporter on the red carpet and approached Smith. After getting a quote or two, the individual hugged Smith and tried to kiss him on the cheek. The actor then pushed him back and landed a soft back-handed slap on the prankster's cheek.

Smith would, later on, address the issue in an interview with David Letterman. For his part, the actor said that the guy professed to be his biggest fan and asked for a hug from him. “So I go to give this joker a hug, and he tries to lean in and kiss me!” Smith added.

It was later discovered that the same individual did a similar thing to other celebrities, such as Brad Pitt, Kim Kardashian, and Gigi Hadid. While the prankster isn't technically a celebrity, it preceded the slap Smith gave just recently during the Oscars on Rock.

50 Cent

Back during the summer of 2020, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith's tumultuous marriage was laid bare for the public to see. The latter revealed in a TV show that she was in a relationship with August Alsina when the pair separated. Naturally, some of Smith's friends checked up on him after the couple's interview was released. Among them were rapper 50 Cent and his conversation with the actor.

During a Red Table Talk, Jada revealed that she met August in 2016 when the singer came to her for help. The actress eventually ended up with him when her marriage to Smith was on the rocks.

It's a good thing, though, that the whole thing died a natural death before it got worse. With both Smith and 50 Cent staying silent about this exchange, the public moved on and forgot this beef ever happened.

Eminem

50 Cent wasn't the first rapper Smith had beef with. Way back in 1999, the actor entered into a feud with one of the industry's most notorious celebrities when it comes to beef – Eminem.

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During the MTV VMAs of the same year, Smith's ‘Miami' came out on top and won the Best Male Video award over Eminem's ‘My Name Is'. The actor then mentioned that he never had to curse in any of his songs to make them more popular.

In a way, Eminem took it as a personal dig against himself and his music, which contained a lot of curse words in it. The other two nominees for the said award were Lenny Kravitz and Ricky Martin, two artists who never used foul language in their songs at that time.

Eminem retaliated in the only way he knows how – create a song that disses Smith. In The Real Slim Shady, the rapper hit back with the line: “Will Smith doesn’t have to cuss to sell records / Well, I do / So f*ck him. And f*ck you too.” 

Eminem's number one hit was just the tip of the iceberg. In the music video for Forgot About Dre, the song stops and a supposedly drunk Eminem goes off on Smith by saying “Yeah, all I know is I’m upstairs and I’m listening to my Will Smith CD and I seen all these flames.”

For his part, Smith decided to retaliate via his 2005 song Mr. Nice Guy. In it, the actor wrote:

“Mr. Nice Guy, relationship advice guy…Light on the vices, priceless smile…Look at the eyes, got the look…Of a survivor, husband, father…Dissed by Eminem but didn’t bother him…Yup well he classy…Big Will just get another 20 mill’ walk right past E…I’ma nice guy why ya’ll harassing me, huh!”

While there was never any real resolution to this feud, there hasn't been anything new between the two during the past few years.

Janet Hubert

Back during The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's third season in 1993, viewers were wondering why Janet Hubert's Aunt Viv suddenly vanished from the show. An interview with an Atlanta radio station during the same year saw Smith publicly attack Hubert.

“I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be The Aunt Viv of Bel-Air Show because I know she is going to dog me in the press,” Smith said. “She said once, ‘I’ve been in the business for 10 years and this snotty-nosed punk comes along and gets a show.’ No matter what, to her I’m just the Antichrist,” He added.

Hubert, for her part, blasted Smith and the show by publicly expressing her dislike for both. Over the years, the actress swore that she won't be part of any reunion as she doesn't want to do anything with Smith.

“He is still an egomaniac and has not grown up. This constant reunion thing will never ever happen in my lifetime unless there is an apology, which he doesn’t know the word,” Hubert said.

Fortunately, the pair eventually reconciled during a Red Table Talk in 2020. In it, both sides were heard and apologies were released to one another. Hubert even came up to Smith's defense when the latter recently made a scene by slapping Rock during the Oscars.

With Smith releasing an apology, the hope here is for the whole issue with Chris Rock to die down. It remains to be seen whether this beef will last longer or nothing more would come out of it.