STOLI CHILLS WITH G.O.O.D MUSIC ARTIST TONY WILLIAMS

[ZyeCha Inc. CEO/Founder PRINA]

Tony Williams has spent his time playing the back for some of the hottest artists in the game. From Jay-Z, Kanye West, Common, Keyshia Cole, P Diddy, Tony has been creating classic records for years. Now, Kanye’s cousin is ready to step out on his own with some help from his friends. Join me as Tony Williams gets open about his realtionship with Kanye, his upcoming solo album, the exploitation of soul music, and so much more!

Stoli: You & Kanye are cousins which is simply awesome. How close were you coming up & did you always know that you two would be in the music biz together?

Tony Williams: Our relationship was like the sibblings on “smart guy”… he was always a little genius kid and I was that older cousin that was always taking him around showing him off. I take him around my friends and I’d be like “ya’ll watch this”, and then he’d do whatever it was that he was doing at the time and just amaze everybody. It was usually drawing or painting or something, but never anything musical. We have a very musical family that started with my grandmother and was passed on through all her kids and grandkids, but Kanye was the one that the gift missed, so we thought anyway. I remember when I was in my twenties and he was a young teenager, I had some of my band members at the house preparing to run out to a gig during the Christmas holidays back in Oklahoma City. Ye was at the house and of course he would have his equipment with him if he was gonna be away from home for more than two hours. He was at the kitchen table working on a track that he demanded that we stop and listen two before we ran off. I can just tell you from what we heard definately didn’t lead us to believe that we’d ever be working together, much less, me working for him…..

Stoli: How much of a role would you say that your love for soul music influenced Kanye’s sound & style?

Tony Williams: I don’t think that I influenced at all, however, recently he recently told me that from being around me and the types of music that i like has made him start to make “cooler” music. I think that we as black people are the “essence” of soul. I really don’t even listen to soul music anymore, neither does he. We try to take in other influences in order to expand. If I never here another soul record again I’m still soul to the core and thats what’s gonna come out of me. Its the other styles that we embrace that enable us make something really special.

Tony Williams & Kanye West “Dreaming of Your Love”:

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