Mr. Williamz
Meet Mr. Williamz! Typically when I do these things I deliberately try to seek out artists who, if/when they ultimately develop and become the absolute best at their craft that they can, the general audiences will STILL perhaps not hear too much about them, given their locale or their style or what I perceive to be an inevitable lack of promotion for whatever reason. Here? No such chance. If you live in the UK, or if you pay a relatively decent attention, you already know about this artist because Mr. Williamz has been blazing as of late. Scoring hit after hit on the UK scene, the UK born, Jamaican grown Mr. Williamz is critically approaching the point where you simply CANNOT afford to ignore him as of late and it's largely due (in my opinion) to the most wonderful quality one can 'package' themselves based on. SKILL. For example:
One of his biggest hits to date, 'No Cigarette' has been attracting even more attention arguably than Dutchie star Ziggi's own tune 'Joka Smoka' tune over the same Necessary Mayhem (ran by the one name Curtis Lynch Jr. apparently), relick of the famous riddim, which apparently LOCKED Europe for awhile earlier this year. Almost SHOCKINGLY the tune would attract so much attention in such a short while that it would ultimately appear on Reggae major Greensleeves' The Biggest Reggae One-Drop Anthems 2009 album release as well.
Even more surprising, however, is the fact that if you REALLY pay attention (even more than me apparently, because I didn't really deal with this album too much), but that wasn't Mr. Williamz' debut on the bigtime, that came a year ago via his participation on 'Champion Sound' which featured a collective of European artists and would appear on the 2008 edition of the genre's flagship series from the genre's flagship label, Reggae Gold from VP Records.
And Williamz has also done very well with the very familiar 'Police In Helicopter' over Lynch's reversioning of that riddim as well (noticing a trend here?) (biggup Mr. Lynch) All of that would lead Mr. Williamz to being declared the UK Reggae artist of 2008 and one would have to think he would be amongst the favourites for 2009 as well. Most recently, the artist has been staying active with several things, including 'Badboy', a guest spot on Lloyd Brown's most recent album For Your Consideration alongside Brown and Juckxi D.
And, Mr. Williamz also reportedly recent scored a number one tune in Japan, with the MASSIVE Real General which is probably the best effort I've heard from the artist to date as it finds him in a downright DEVASTATING mood on the oldschool Dancehall vibes (and I'll spare you the Lynch inspired details on this one out of fear of sounding redundant).
So! Keep an eye well on Mr. Williamz. For me, he, alongside Gappy Ranks, seem to represent somewhat of a changing of the guard on the UK scene, with names like Tippa Irie and Chukki Starr being the international faces of the DJ's on that side of the pond, it is soooooo nice to see some new blood in the genre. And while it is my thought that although Gappy (who reportedly has secured for himself a Greensleeves contract already) a HUGE artist in his own right, will eventually receive more of the attention, Mr. Williamz in my opinion, has ALREADY shown himself to be one of the most talented youths in the game and when he develops it out, he figures to become one of the most talented in the game. Period.
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