Conductor Williams left a 20-year railway career to become a full-time producer. After years of balancing long shifts with producing beats, he finally chose music at the age of 41. This is the story of how Conductor Williams became one of the most well-respected producers in modern rap.
Conductor Williams’ early life
Denzel Williams, better known as Conductor Williams, was born in 1982 in Kansas City, Missouri. Williams was particularly inspired by the local jazz, soul and hip-hop scene. He first started producing music while attending a local college around the mid-2000s.
Around the same time, Williams started working as a railway conductor, just like his dad and uncle. In an interview with the Audiomack CEO Brian Zisook, Williams explains that he worked long shifts, often upwards of 12 hours. “Conductors and engineers make real money. You stay in nice hotels. You get chartered. It’s like the NBA,” he said.
In his free time, Williams liked to produce music and frequently put out beats, first on MySpace and then Instagram, SoundCloud and YouTube. He quickly gained popularity in the hip-hop scene for his creative use of samples and loops.
The come-up
In the following years, Williams spent his time working long shifts while also producing and selling beats to local Kansas City rappers. After he had “worked with everyone”, he turned to the internet and started uploading beats to MySpace. It led to collabs with artists like the NY-based rapper Fresh Daily.
Around 2016, Williams felt stuck in his musical career and felt the need to make a change. So, after learning to edit videos through Adobe Premiere, Williams decided to only focus on himself and upload his beats to Instagram. This allowed Williams to spend more time producing rather than reaching out to rappers for possible collaborations.
In an interview with Billboard, Williams describes the hardships that he was going through during the time. “My granny had died. I went through a bad relationship. I was living in my car a little bit and couch hopping. I really didn’t have no money like that. I got laid off at the job. It was just a moment where everything changed, so maybe I needed to change too.”
The breakthrough with Westside Gunn
In late 2018, New York rapper Westside Gunn from the hip-hop collective Griselda reached out to Williams through Instagram. While on a trip to Paris with Virgil Abloh and Mike Dean, Westside Gunn had heard a beat from Williams’ Instagram video. Gunn was instantly drawn to the sound, and the two have worked closely ever since.
As his popularity grew, so did the mental load of combining work and music. “My health was declining. I was eating like crap, sleeping odd hours. I was down bad.” It came to a point where Williams’ wife was afraid that he was beginning to hit a wall. “You gotta figure this out. We need you here” she said.
Why Conductor Williams quit his railway job
Among Williams’ colleagues, the choice was clear, they had even taken bets on when he would leave. So at the age of 41, Williams finally quit his day job as a railway conductor, to become a full-time musician in 2023. He describes the relief of having time to spend time with his kids and sleeping properly.
Since 2023, Williams has landed major collaborations with artists like Drake, J. Cole, Wiz Khalifa and Leon Thomas. There have also been rumours that Drake and Conductor Williams are working on a collaboration album called “TRY SOMETHING ELSE”, although this hasn’t been officially confirmed.
Conclusion
Conductor Williams took an unusual path to success. After balancing making music and working as a railway worker for almost 20 years, he finally decided to quit in 2023. Instead of hiding his background, he embraced it clearly, even making it his producer name and tag. His story shows how persistence and continuity can turn a hobby into a successful career.