DETROIT >> Big Sean and Will Smith team up on Smith’s new single “Beautiful Scars,” the video for which finds them cosplaying as Neo and Morpheus from “The Matrix.”

Why “The Matrix”? Smith says in the intro to the clip that he turned down the role of Neo in the 1999 film. That part was in turn taken by Keanu Reeves and the rest, as they say, is history. (“Wild Wild West,” the film Smith made instead of “The Matrix,” ended up making a different kind of history, the wrong kind.)

Big Sean plays the Morpheus role, which was played in the movies by Laurence Fishburne, while Smith takes on Neo. Smith anchors verses one and three and Big Sean mans the middle verse of the single, which was produced by OBanga, who also sings the song’s hook.

And there’s also a nice piece of synchronicity between the two rappers and “The Matrix”: Smith is the last name of the film’s Agent character, played by Hugo Weaving, and Anderson, which is Big Sean’s surname, is the last name of the Neo character. (Indeed, Big Sean makes a “Mr. Anderson and Mr. Smith” reference in his verse.)

“Beautiful Scars” is the first single from Smith’s upcoming “Based on a True Story,” his first album since 2005’s “Lost and Found.”

Big Sean, meanwhile, recently released his first book, “Go Higher: Five Practices for Purpose, Success, and Inner Peace.”

Distributed by Tribune News Service.