Parents Just Don't Understand

Infobox Single
Name = Parents Just Don't Understand


Artist = DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
from Album = He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper
Recorded = 1987
Format = 12", cassette, CD single
Released = 1988
Genre = Hip-Hop/Rap
Length =
Label = Zomba/Jive
Writer =
Producer =
Certification =
Last single = "Nightmare on My Street" (1988)
This single = "Parents Just Don't Understand" (1988)
Next single = "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson" (1989)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper
Type = studio
prev_track = "Pump Up the Bass"
prev_no = 6
this_track = "Parents Just Don't Understand"
track_no = 7
next_track = "As We Go"
next_no = 8Extra tracklisting
Album =
Type = Compilation
prev_track = "Girls Ain't Nothing but Trouble"
prev_no = 1
this_track = "Parents Just Don't Understand"
track_no = 2
next_track = "Nightmare on My Street"
next_no = 3

"Parents Just Don't Understand" is a Grammy Award winning rap song on the album "He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper" sung by rap duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. The song won the 1989 Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance, the first of two ever awarded in that category, and reached #12 on the U.S. Pop Singles Chart.

The song was referenced several times in the television show "The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air". In the pilot, where Will dresses for dinner in his "homeboy" style look, the main instrumental of the song plays. In the episode "Not With My Pig, You Don't," Philip Banks (James Avery) says to Will "You don't get it Will, sometimes parents just don't understand." In "Mistaken Identity," Uncle Phil says to Will, "You're only seventeen, you don't have a rep yet." This line is almost a carbon copy of a lyric in verse one. Finally, it was referenced in the episode "Will Gets Committed" during the flashback where everyone is younger. As the young "Uncle Phil" starts reprimanding the young "Will", the young "Will" says "Parents just don't understand."

Cover versions

* A cover of the song was sung by Lil' Romeo, 3LW and Nick Cannon, which it appears in the "" soundtrack.
* The song was used by a young Tupac Shakur in a music video he made with Smith's future wife Jada Pinkett. Shakur and Pinkett had been attending the Baltimore School of Performing Arts.