His mother, Gladys Williams, performed in clubs around Baton Rouge with soul R&B singer-pianist Bobby Powell and with blues singer and harmonica player, Raful Neal.
[2] Williams made his public performing debut at age 11 at Mount Wade Baptist Church in Baton Rouge with a rendition of the Winans' "He Set Me Free."
[2] Before relocating to the Bay Area city of Livermore in 2000 with his mother and his four siblings, Williams made his recording debut singing hooks on a CD by the Baton Rouge hip-hop group Smoke Click.
"[7] In 2007 The San Francisco Chronicle called him "a soul stylist of the first order" who "might have given Fantasia Barrino some serious competition on "American Idol" if he had not been bounced from the show early in 2004 after a drunken-driving arrest.” [8] Williams credits Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, Ron Isley and Donny Hathaway as influences and also includes gospel singers Marvin Winans and Dorinda Clark-Cole among his favorites.
He hooked up with Park Place band leader and Bay Area based Paul Tillman Smith to begin recording his debut album Just like Magic.
[10] "Just like Magic" features Keyboardist and hip-hop MC Kev Choice (Voted by East Bay Express as "The Most Multi-Talented Musician") and who served as the musical tour director for Lauryn Hill in both 2006 and 2007.
On keys Kev Choice has supported such artists as Michael Franti & Spearhead, Goapele, Too Short, Martin Luther, Jennifer Johns, DJ Quik and Zion I.