Tre Williams is a Proud Lover of the City With Soul
Hip-hop hook singer turned soul and R&B hit-maker Tre Williams is a Daytona Beach, Florida baby, but he is one of Jackson’s bonus children.
Jackson has many “adopted” visitors. They come, fall in love with the city and the people, and do it all over again year after year. Artists and entertainers are no different.
“People always ask me why I perform in Jackson,” Williams told a Jackson crowd. “That’s funny to me. Where else is there? If I only perform five times a year, and they’re all in Jackson, I’ve won. Jackson is where I get the love.”
Williams, well known for his 2009 hit single “I Don’t Want to Know,” is no stranger to the City with Soul. He’s had Jackson in a rotation for years over his lengthy career, but before there were tours, there were humble beginnings in the early 2000s. After his appearance on Amateur Night at the Apollo as a hip-hop artist in 2001, things started looking up.
Soon after Apollo, Williams was featured on a Petey Pablo track, “Diary of a Sinner.” Other features poured in, including “I-95” on The L.O.X.’s mixtape “Peer Pressure” and “Let There Be Light” on Nas’ album “Hip Hop Is Dead.” Williams even joined a successful band, The Revelations Featuring Tre Williams, for a few years. The last two projects seemed to come together, at least in name and title, because the hit R&B single “I Don’t Want to Know” gave Williams the idea to “dead” his hip-hop career, with the revelation to focus more on R&B.
“When we did the “I Don’t Want to Know” record, I knew this was it,” Williams told Performer: The Musician’s Resource. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute, hold on, let me change course.’ I felt something special. It’s bigger than me. God had a plan, and I was going to follow.”
More recently, Williams dropped the Chocolate Soul album in 2017 and three singles in 2024, including Unc Still Got It, Low Down Soul, and Mr. Stress Reliever. Williams still performs solo while maintaining charted singles at small venues and major arenas, but Jackson is a place for enchantment that is unmatched.
“They say I love y’all the most,” Williams said to an applauding crowd. “That’s what I came for. For this. I don’t care about nothing else as long as I got y’all.”
