Originally Published: 06 FEB 23 09:51 ET

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) -- The last time Questlove and Will Smith were on the same stage it was controversial, but anyone looking for Smith in the hip-hop tribute produced by Questlove at the Sunday's Grammy Awards would have been disappointed.

Questlove explained to Variety in advance of the broadcast that Smith had planned to participate in the 50th anniversary celebration of the genre, which included some of the biggest legends in hip hop, but he had a scheduling conflict.

"I'll give the spoiler alert away. Will Smith was a part of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting 'Bad Boys 4' this week," Questlove said. "There were a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will."

Before he became an actor, Smith was a rapper whose iconic 1991 hit "Summertime" has become an anthem the season.

He and co-star Martin Lawrence announced last week that they were beginning work on the "Bad Boys" sequel.

Smith famously stormed the stage during last year's Oscars telecast and slapped Chris Rock after Rock made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. After the slap Rock presented Questlove with the for best documentary feature Academy Award for the film "Summer of Soul."