Brandon Oneal Williams, (born November 30, 1987), better known by his stage name Urban Mystic, is an American recording artist from

Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...

, United States. He is best known for his hit singles, "Where Were You" and "I Refuse". Mystic inked a record deal with indie label

SoBe Entertainment SoBe Entertainment, LLC is an international entertainment parent company founded by Cecile D. Barker with music, film, TV, night club, management and digital subsidiaries. The record label is a subsidiary of Fontana Distribution and Universal Mus ...

and released his debut album ''Ghetto Revelations'' in 2004. His second album ''Ghetto Revelations II'' was released in 2006. His third album ''GRIII: Old School 2 Nu Skool'' was released in 2009. His fourth album ''Ghetto Revelations IV: Love Intervention'' was released in 2013. His fifth album ''Soulful Classics'' was released in 2015.

Early life

Williams was born the son of a church minister in 1987 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was also raised. In his early years, he developed an interest for music at his father's church. He attended

Dillard High School Dillard High School is a historic public middle and high school located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The school was established in 1907 as Colored School 11 and was later named for black-education advocate James H. Dillard. It is a part of Broward ...

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

where he sang at every pep rally, show and event that was held in order to get noticed. He even performed at the local "Sistrunk Historical Festival" held every year in honor of Dr. James Sistrunk, one of the first African-American Physicians in

Broward County, Florida Broward County ( , ) is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's second-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with over 1.94 m ...

. He was looking forward to pursuing a musical career with support from his brother Christopher. He grew more familiar with the music industry and became active as songwriter and producer.

Career

In 2003, Williams gave himself the moniker ''Urban Mystic'' which reflects both his street mentality and his singing talent. In 2004, Williams entered into a record deal with

. His debut album, ''Ghetto Revelations'', released on November 30, 2004, included the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' R&B hit single "Where Were You", produced by

KayGee Keir Lamont Gist (born September 15, 1969), professionally known by his stage name KayGee, is an American DJ and record producer from East Orange, New Jersey, best known as a member of hip hop trio Naughty by Nature. He has won a Grammy Award f ...

. He also had worked with

Red Spyda Andy "Red Spyda" Thelusma is an American hip hop producer who has worked on many songs for artists including 50 Cent, D-Block, Mobb Deep, Amerie, D12, and G-Unit. Other notable works by Red Spyda have included his contributions to the in-game ...

and

El DeBarge Eldra Patrick "El" DeBarge (born June 4, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. He was the focal point and primary lead singer of the family group DeBarge. Popular songs led by El DeBarge include "Time Will Reveal", "Who's Holding ...

on the album. The first single from his second album, "It's You", was released in 2005 and featured

Paul Wall Paul Michael Slayton (born March 11, 1981), better known by his stage name Paul Wall, is an American rapper and DJ. He has spent much of his career affiliated with Swishahouse Records, and has released several albums under the label and collabor ...

. In the same year, Williams joined the newfangled ''Spitkicker'' collective. His second studio album, ''Ghetto Revelations II'' was released on March 21, 2006 and produced by

Scott Storch Scott Spencer Storch (born December 16, 1973) is an American record producer and songwriter. He started off as a keyboardist for the group the Roots. Early life Storch was born on Long Island, New York. He was raised in South Florida and Phila ...

and Terence "Tramp-Baby" Abney. It reached #10 in the

Heatseekers albums Top Heatseekers are "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales by new an ...

chart. The second single, "I Refuse", produced by

and released in 2006, reached #36 in the Billboard

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

chart. His third studio album, titled ''GRIII: Old School 2 Nu Skool'', was released in April 2009. The album featured a genre mix of

Neo soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from soul and contempo ...

and

Contemporary R&B Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music. The genre features a distinctive record production style, drum machine-backed rhythm ...

. His fourth studio album entitled ''Love Intervention'', was released on February 26, 2013 via digital outlets. The first single off the album is called "In the Morning" featuring producer MDMA, it was released for a digital download on February 23, 2010. The second single "Name On It", it was released on April 3, 2012 via

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. The third single "I Promise" released on October 9, 2012 on

. ''Love Intervention'' was released for physical retailers on April 16, 2013 Mystic released his fifth album ''Soulful Classics'' on July 31, 2015. It was preceded by the release of the singles "No Matter How High" and "Feel Good". Mystic parted ways with

in early 2017. and is currently signed to his own label Urban Life Music Group while planning on the release of his upcoming sixth album ''Underrated''.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Official siteUrban Mystic on Tygereye Entertainment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urban Mystic American contemporary R&B singers Living people Musicians from Fort Lauderdale, Florida Singers from Florida 21st-century American singers 21st-century American male singers 1987 births