Willie D was 5 years old the first time he saw someone killed.
That was Fifth Ward, the Houston neighborhood where William James Dennis grew up and where his toughness was built. More than five decades later, the Geto Boys rapper turned 60 on Nov. 1.
He will celebrate the milestone Nov. 18 with The Roast of Willie D: Cooked by Legends at Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land. The one-night show, led by roastmaster D.L. Hughley with Cedric the Entertainer and Ali Siddiq, will be recorded for television.
In an interview with the Defender ahead of the roast, Willie D discussed his journey and what he hopes younger people will take from it.
Built in Fifth Ward
What the neighborhood gave him was range.
“It teaches you how to adapt, how to switch gears, how to move in different spaces,” Willie D said.
He never bought into the North Side-South Side divide, riding the bus from Fifth Ward to the end of South Park to mingle.
That confidence travels with him. It also makes him protective of how Houston does things. He likes the attention celebrities bring to the city, but does not want it to turn into Hollywood.
“If you want to be in the entertainment industry, you can be in the entertainment industry and flourish without being in Hollywood,” he said. “That’s one of the coolest things about being a Houstonian.”
Rap-A-Lot Records founder James Prince put the group together in 1986, then spelled Ghetto Boys. Willie D and Scarface, both solo acts on the label, joined in the late 1980s alongside Bushwick Bill, who died in 2019. Their 1991 single Mind Playing Tricks on Me reached No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Hot Rap Songs chart.
The profanity drew the headlines. Willie D says the point was somewhere else.
“Yeah, we had a lot of profanity in our music,” he said. “But if you listen to the message, the message was filled with cautionary tales.”
He was raised by Stevie Wonder, and Stevie Wonder, he said, saved his life. He wanted to do that for others. He wanted records that could talk people off the ledge and take on corrupt authorities, and he still measures music by whether it speaks to its moment.
Rules for the long game
His approach to business starts with accepting that nobody gets a perfect deal. He points to Prince, Michael Jackson, and Elvis Presley as proof. His code is simple. Sign in good faith. If the other side breaches, go to them and try to make it right, and fight only if that fails. Honor the terms either way. When a deal ends, he moves on.
Success has never just been about money; it’s always been about family and community for Willie D. He did not become a millionaire until later in life, after he put down the mic. He has also watched what money does to people who chase it.
Willie D hosts the YouTube show Willie D Live, where his commentary leans sociopolitical. He expects future generations to judge this era harshly.
“They’re gonna look back at this like it was a horror movie,” he said. “I’ma make sure they ain’t pointin’ a finger at me.”
He applies the same logic to today’s artists. Some would have held their own against his generation, and others are, in his words, trash. He still will not knock their hustle.
“It’s hard for me to knock a person’s hustle when they’re doing it the right way, when they’re doing it legally,” he said. “I came up around a bunch of guys who did not do it legally, and they went to prison, or they got killed.”
A friend and a father
Bishop Ronald Hopes has known Willie D for about 50 years and went through school with him.
“There is nothing that I can go through that I don’t share with him, vice versa,” Hopes said.
The bond extends to their families. Hopes’ children call Willie D “uncle”; Willie D’s children call Hopes the same; and both families know they can go to either man about the other.
It is not the music that Hopes says would surprise people who know Willie D only from his records. It is how he treats people.
“I asked for this. I want to be the old dude on the porch that the youngsters come to for information.”
Willie D
“They would really be surprised by his attentiveness to people. I’m not just talking about people in the industry that he’s in, but just an average person,” Hopes said. “He literally cares. He has a heart for people.”
Hopes says that Willie D’s journey to independence as a Southern artist involved “actual fights” and sacrifices. He acknowledged the pain of such struggles but highlighted Willie D’s resilience and determination to persevere.
What he is carrying forward shows up most at home. Willie D has two children, a daughter who is now a lawyer and a son, and the first rule in his house has always been that his word is good. He grew up hearing women complain that men said one thing and did another, he said, and he did not want his kids to learn that about their father.
“I think a lot of parents lose out on learning from their children,” he said. “I learned to bend because I don’t know everything, and they have taught me a lot.”
Old is the goal
The birthday roast is Willie D’s answer to the people who doubted him. He wants the night to take roasting back to its roots.
“Roasts started at family gatherings on the street corners, at barbershops, and it’s rooted in community,” he said. “So that’s what this is gonna be.”
The show will not be tame, but there are lines.
“It ain’t gonna be no Disney type roast,” he said. “You can talk about me, man, but you can’t talk about my dead mama. That’s too far.”
Willie D has wanted to be old since he was a boy, and he wishes more young people felt the same. He hears it from people in their 30s online.
“I asked for this,” he said. “I want to be the old dude on the porch that the youngsters come to for information.”
He intends to stay active and engaged after 60. “I’m never taking my foot off the gas,” he said. If he ends up with regrets, he said, he wants them to come from things he did, not chances he passed up out of fear.
“I want to be a healthy 60, healthy 70, healthy 80, healthy 90,” he said. “I need these knees, I need these ankles. I like to party, not too much. I drink, not too much.”
