Kamaal Williams

Kamaal Williams, born Henry Gilbert Williams in Peckham, South London, is a British musician and record producer. His father, a British architect, and his mother, a Taiwanese professional, raised him, and his mixed-race background led him to feel disconnected from mainstream British culture, though he found resonance with the West African and Jamaican communities in his neighbourhood. Early on, he learned drums and percussion in primary school, playing in the school band, and his father introduced him to jazz through Miles Davis and John Coltrane. He also developed a taste for garage and grime music. After attending Dulwich College, he studied music production and keyboard at the Bermondsey Centre of Southwark College. At 17, he formed a band with Katy B and drummer Joshua McKenzie, gigging regularly around London for two years before leaving to produce his own work.

Williams began his career producing house and broken beat music under the alias Henry Wu, releasing an EP on the London label 22a in 2014 and collaborating with K15 on the EP *WU15* in 2015. From 2017 to 2020, he hosted a monthly NTS Radio show as Henry Wu. He rose to prominence with drummer Yussef Dayes as the duo Yussef Kamaal. They met in 2014 and began playing together after rehearsing Williams’ solo work for a Boiler Room gig. In 2016, a 20-minute live set at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards earned them a deal with Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings, where they released their only album, *Black Focus*, on 4 November. It reached number 26 on the UK Jazz & Blues chart and won the duo the ‘Breakthrough Act’ award at the 2017 Jazz FM awards. In March 2017, the band was refused entry to the US for SXSW after Dayes’ visa was revoked under a Trump administration executive order. On 4 May 2017, they announced they would no longer perform together, though Williams later said the split “travelled into something new and fresh.”

Williams launched his solo career under his own label, Black Focus Records, releasing *The Return* in 2018, which charted at number 63 in the UK. He enlisted former bandmate McKenzie on drums and bassist Pete Martin for the album. In 2019, he released the single “New Heights (Visions of Aisha Malik)” with a b-side, “Snitches Brew,” and a video inspired by martial arts.