You may say “hello” to Cameron Williams, but if Cameron has headphones over his ears, it’s most likely that he didn’t realize you were there because you may not be in the same place as Cameron. For Cameron, better known as C. Will, sound is hypnotic and it’s most likely that he was in a hypnotic state when you tried to talk with him. When he takes off his headphones, then both of you are in the same place, and he will be the first to tell you what attracts him to music. Sound. “It’s the way that sound is so hypnotizing. Sound in itself can take you to a different place depending on any kind of sound,” he said. For C. Will, no sound goes unnoticed, not even the clanking of metal objects. According to Cameron, “some friends tell me when they hear sounds of clanking it reminds them of jail. So it takes them to a different place. As Tom Morello said from Rage Against The Machine, ‘All music is subliminal.’ The way that sound can take you to a different place is what attracts me to music.” Growing up in Colorado and Texas, rap music has always been a part of C. Will’s life. It’s part of his culture. “It’s where I come from in my neighborhood. It’s the culture. It’s embedded in it. Honestly it has helped get out of more dark places than I can account for. It’s therapeutic for sure,” he said. And C. Will just doesn’t listen to other rap artists to get inspired. He draws on his love for all types of music to get his messages out. “There is so much that is connected,” he said. He draws inspiration from Led Zeppelin, Duke Ellington, Big Band Jazz, Fusion jazz, classic rock, even blue grass. “I’m able to reach from those places that those artists reached from in their time to infuse that into what I’m doing,” he said. Cameron believes that musicians all live parallel lives. “There is always struggle involved (for musicians) and there is always passion. I think some of the best artists are some of the most passionate. They are truly dedicated to their craft and they have given up a lot of things,” he noted. C. Will is also an active listener and learner. He has a passion for learning about artists who have come before him and learning about their struggles. He equates their experiences with his own experiences, and by doing so, tries to make a new path to walk down. “I’m trying to write my own stories and trying to write my own passage.” Because he wasn’t blessed with hands to play guitar, C. Will uses rap music and the spoken word to tell his stories. “I’m not really a musician, but I know that the spoken word is the most powerful thing in the world to me and to society.” According to C. Will, the oral tradition of passing down information through storytelling is very much alive in music. “Hip-Hop comes from that. It’s all about oral tradition. A lot of music has that (oral tradition) but it’s song over melodies where rap is actually spoken, but to the syncopated beats. The sound is hypnotic and the music itself can put you in a trance.” But during the writing process, Cameron is a recluse. He says his creativity comes in waves. “I don’t force creativity. Sometimes the music writes for me – a melody or sometimes I write then i find the music meaning if I am going through something or if I see a situation in society as a whole where I have to speak on it or I have an opinion, I’ll write.” Cameron said that Hip-Hop has two sides to it, and he wants to bring balance to the genre. For C. Will, positive energy and being open minded are key. “You have to think outside the box. Don’t let what you see every day influence your way of thinking and the way that you view life,” he said.