Pretty Willie

Imagine if a new kind of talent came along. One, who rarely cursed, was educated, spiritual, rapped, sang, and often looked to the bright side of gloomy clouds. Sounds too good to be true? Well believe it. Because St. Louis, Missouri birthed one such artist Pretty Willie. His magnetic debut, Enter The Life Of Suella, departs from the dark and depressing weather of today’s hip-hop climate, and brings a brighter and friendly aspect to the game. “I really haven’t heard anyone talk about the good things in the ghetto,” says Pretty Willie. “I really want to change the game, maneuver the pack and take rap to another level where new audience can come into our world. I keep it clean and edgy by just being myself.”

Pretty Willie (Willie Moore Jr.) was always destined for musical success. At 7, he learned how to play piano, drums, guitar, and sang with the Ferguson Florissant All District Choir. When he was 11, he became the rapping/singing member of a rap group named The Baby Gangsters, but this group was just a stepping stone in preparation for what was yet to come. “We had a song on the radio in St. Louis, we performed every weekend at clubs and we got a lot of local recognition,” he says. However, Willie got tired of rapping about negative topics like robbing and killing, so he turned his focus to school and track. Pretty Willie graduated from Berkley High School, where he became a track star and received a full scholarship to The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss.), where he pledged the historical African American fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and received a degree in Psychology with a minor in Political Science.

But Willie couldn’t shake his love for music. “I was always rhyming. I would hop on songs [in the studio] whenever I came home [from school],” he says. “I came back one summer and did one song in D2’s studios, just joking around and six months later, during my finals, they called saying they wanted me to do a whole project.” That was the beginning of ‘Suella’ (Suave Usually Educated Luckily Ladies Ask) or another way of saying ‘swell.’ D2 would fly Willie back and forth from school on weekends to record. Sometimes he’d drive the 5-hours from Mississippi to St. Louis, listening to beats and writing songs during the ride. When things became too hectic, Willie made a life changing choice. “I had to give up track or rap. I gave up track and decided to rap full-time,” says, the former NCAA track and field star. He made a good choice. Since focusing on his musical craft, Pretty Willie has become an on-air personality for one of St. Louis’ popular radio stations KATZ 100.3 (The Beat). “It’s something I always wanted to do,” says Willie, who also uses the mix-show to preview cuts from the album. I do all the talking and hold it down.” And hold it down he does…His Sunday night program “Pretty Radio” is rated number one in its time slot–the perfect stepping-stone for the release of Enter The Life Of Suella.

Executive produced by D2 Entertainment, Enter The Life Of Suella, is Pretty Willie’s open introduction to his outlook on living. The album not only speaks directly to the people in St. Louis, it speaks to everyone around the world. The laid back, mid-western swing on tracks like the first single “Roll Wit Me,” is as contagious as a head cold on the local playground. “Roll Wit Me,” an ode to St. Louis, is a #1 hit regionally, but will soon have everyone from California to New York nodding their heads with a confident bounce.

Pretty Willie’s multi-talented plethora of creative flavor comes to life on songs like, “Thinking The Same Thing,” where Willie uses his gift for singing and rapping, to bring a delightful mixture of story telling alongside mesmerizing soothing vocal prowess. “I’m not just a rapper. God blessed me with the talent to sing,” says Pretty Willie. “I respect all of my blessings and make them into big things.” And they get no bigger than the bound to be classic “She Got a Man at Home.” The story of a neglected girlfriend, who looks to Willie for relief from her loneliness, is a hypnotic cut which mixes soulful singing with slick rhyming sentences, and to top this track off, the live guitar strings add the perfect intimate touch. “There are a lot of live instruments on the album,” he says. “That’s what I’m pulled to.” This live instrumentation stretches far into songs like “Hard Times,” where Willie sings about the importance of education and on “I Don’t Know About You,” where he makes a touching tribute to his adoptive parents. While on the lustful “Liner Love,” Willie skillfully bounces between crooning and spitting while schooling a material lady on the important things in life. For all the stone-cold rap fanatics, Pretty Willie includes some hardcore joints like “High Speed,” and “I Can Only Be Me,” a raging emotional roller-coaster of rap fury that sets the record straight, Willie won’t front for anyone. On the playful bounce track “Na Na” Pretty Willie is quick to reaffirm his blast of confidence and wittily quip, “Why can’t I call myself Pretty/If you thugged out, I’m cleaned up.”

Pretty Willie is hardly ashamed to call himself a pretty boy. Enter The Life Of Suella is proof the Willie knows who he is, where he wants to go, and is taken the right path to get there. “I live for the day. The past is history, the future is a mystery and the present is a gift,” he says. “Just handling your business, making your money, and doing everything you want to do, that’s pretty to me.