James Lassiter attended University of Miami and Temple University and befriended Jeffrey "Jazzy Jeff" Townes, who was in a rap duo with then-musician Will Smith. Lassiter met Smith through Townes, and he later became Smith's road manager. They worked together for two decades. Lassiter briefly worked with other companies including Handprint and The Firm, but he returned to being Will Smith's business partner. Lassiter and Smith formed the production company Overbrook Entertainment, which produced films like Hitch and ATL. While Overbrook Entertainment had a deal with Universal Studios to produce films, none resulted, and the company was taken to Sony. The pair sought to market each of their productions to a different foreign market, promoting I, Robot in Russia and Ali in South Africa.

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