Brio: Is Willie Will your nickname?
My real name is Willie Wilson. Friends in high school started calling me Willie Will out of nowhere, so I kept it. In rap, a lot of people have these aliases and street names, but I wanted to go with something that really represented me as a person and who I am. What [could be] better than my name?

How did you get started in music?
I come from a family of 8. My dad was a quartet singer in the ‘70s. My mom was a choir director, so when they got together music was in the air.

Around 1985 or ’86, the first Christian rap album was released. I thank God for my mom, because she bought that CD for my brother and me. Then every Christian rap tape that came out, she put it in our hands. She knew the direction we were going or the trend that was prevalent in that era. She wanted to steer us in the right direction but also let us be who we were going to be. My mom was key in steering us down the path of Christian rap or holy hip-hop. Even though we experimented and experienced a whole lot of other things, we had a strong foundation in God, and our first love and first passion was Christian rap.

When I was about 11, my brothers and I started a group called The Heavenly Boyz, and we did that for 10 years. When we all grew up, music was still in our blood. We had to stop doing the kiddy thing, but we couldn’t stop doing the music, because it was just in us. So that’s when God put it on my heart to pursue a solo career in Christian rap.

What was it like having a dad in and out of your life growing up?
It wasn’t so much that he was in and out of our lives, but we were going to church every Sunday, and church or God seemed to be only a Sunday-thing [for him] because he was hypocritical in his lifestyle. To him, the music was more important than the God of the music we were singing about. We got a lot of mixed messages. My mom, being Holy Ghost filled, [music] was my mom’s outlet.

My dad showed us the other side through his lifestyle. Not purposely, but he gave us somewhat of a desire to experience the streets for ourselves. It caused us to be hypocritical in our own lives.

While we were The Heavenly Boyz, people would see us perform and call ourselves The Heavenly Boyz, but offstage, we’re doing things that don’t even show that we’re Christian. We didn’t really grasp the responsibility that came with music ministry. It was hard.

Inevitably, living out the lifestyle we were shown yet saying something different when we were on stage, people saw it. We lied to ourselves and thought we could do this. But people saw it. That’s when I said, “If I’m going to do [music ministry] for real, then I’m going to be real about it. Before I start the music, I need to work on my life and myself.” God got a hold of me in a very real way, and from there on began the process.

Have you been able to forgive yourself for your past?
I’m still reaping consequences for my actions as a teenager now as a 28-year-old. There’s a lot of things I did that I regret, a lot of mistakes that I made, but I do thank God that I was able to learn from them rather than repeat them.

There are things that if it were up to me I’d take back, but God used them for His glory and His purpose to shape me in to the person He wants me to be.

I’ve heard that your girlfriend got pregnant while you were dating. Did you make a new commitment toward purity before you met your wife?
One thing I learned is that God’s commandments aren’t for Him to be mean to us or to keep us from fun. The Bible says that God will withhold no good thing from us. Everything He commands us to do is for our own protection. I had to learn that the hard way, because after losing my virginity, my struggle was to close the door that should never had been opened. From that point on, all my losing my virginity did to me was cause me heartache, stress and pain. When I committed to be pure from that, anytime I’d fall, I’d fall in that area. Premarital sex was my struggle.

If I had listened in the first place, I could have saved myself so much heartache and pain. But when I told God, “I give it all up to You. I belong to you fully,” I felt like a virgin again, because God gave me the peace of knowing I was forgiven. Not just knowing, but He treated me as if I had never sinned in that area.

The Bible says if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I stood on that Scripture. The Bible also says in Psalm 145 that He upholds those who are fallen. Whenever I felt like I was going to fall, God didn’t let me fall. I thank God for that.

What advice do you have for a teen girl who struggles in that area?
First of all, you have to really want purity. If you don’t really want it, you won’t really get it. You’ll say one thing, but you’ll do another. You’ll say you don’t want to have sex anymore, but you’ll be at your boyfriend’s house at midnight, watching a movie, and it’s you two by yourselves. You put yourself in these types of situations where you’re able to fall.

So you have to want it. If you do, then God is faithful that He will not allow you to be tempted by more than you can bear. And second, He will provide a way of escape. He’ll make you strong enough to handle whatever temptation. If you really want to be strong in that area, completely lean on God, because temptation is strong. It’s out there, and you can’t do it alone.

The book of Ecclesiastes was influential in your becoming a Christian, but were there people in your life speaking truth to you as well?
My mother, first of all. She’s always been that spiritual pillar I needed. And my pastor. My father passed away not too long ago, and [my pastor] really stepped in as a spiritual father and continued to steer me on a right path.

A theme on your album Reflection is not only saying you’re a Christian but also living it. Why is that concept so important to you?
That is my past and my background. While I was going through it, I thought it was only I [who was being hypocritical]. Through my experience, I saw that millions of Christians go to church on Sundays but you can find them on Friday or Saturday night in the clubs getting drunk, or you can find them in the schools cursing and doing everything they’re not supposed to do. It surprised me; my eyes were open to the fact that a lot of people sitting in pews on Sundays profess to be Christians, but through the week you’d never tell by their lifestyle. It’s so important for us to distinguish ourselves from the world and do as the Bible says to be holy as our Father is holy.

Willie’s Favorites
Instrument: piano or strings
Subject in school: math
Pizza topping: meat lovers with pepperoni and sausage from Pizza Hut
Candy: Starbursts
Candy bar: Twix
Weekend activity: being at home with my wife and my daughter or watching movies