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HITS Daily Double

MERGING INTO THE CARPOOL LANE

Apple Music has premiered episode one of the revamped Carpool Karaoke—the show that captures what unfolds when celebrities jam out in a car together. The concept was of course made famous by Late Late Show host James Corden, who kicked things off this week with Will Smith, although he will not be present in every episode.

Smith, who laughs through the pain when explaining the joys of fathering teenagers, shares that he had to look Corden up after first meeting him and pretending to know who he was. He talks about writing his first rhyme at twelve years old, releasing one at 16 and having a record on the radio for the last 30 days of his senior year. Corden, on the other hand, reveals that he once attempted to form what he calls a “rap troop” in his youth, and that his rap name was none other than—wait for it—Chub Nasty.

And as one would expect, the duo rock out to a selection of gems from Smith’s career, namely “Getting Jiggy Wit’ It,” “Boom! Shake the Room,” “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Summertime,” as well as R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly.”

In the 20-min clip, Smith and Corden also manage to crash a wedding and hijack a helicopter (Now you get the “I Believe I Can Fly” choice). That said, these new, longer episodes clearly have a bigger budget. No longer just an irregular segment of a late-night cable show, Carpool Karaoke now appears more stylized and cinematic, and proves to be a big step forward in Apple Music’s quest for original programming.

The 20-episode series, which after its premiere will release two episodes per week, has already teased appearances from Metallica, Ariana Grande, John Legend, Alicia Keys and the entire Cyrus family (as well as film, TV and sports stars). Who else could be in store? The possibilities are endless.

An abridged version of the first episode can be seen here (via YouTube), but you still gotta subscribe to Apple Music to see the whole shebang.