About Chris

Chris Williams is a music journalist, editor, and professor. He began his career as a freelance writer at the Free Lance-Star, in Fredericksburg, VA, with an opinion editorial on the significance of the election of President Barack Obama.

Chris Williams graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Media and Culture and has worked as a staff writer, editor, freelancer, for a number of publications including: The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, MSNBC’s The Grio, Salon, EBONY, COLORLINES, Red Bull Music Academy, Wax Poetics Magazine, Okayplayer, AOL Music and AOL Business, Truthout, National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), PopMatters, Black America Web, SoulCulture, and The Free Lance-Star. His work has been cited and referenced in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, VICE, Pitchfork, VIBE, Slate, The Root, and books including: Beyond Hate: White Power and Popular Culture (The Cultural Politics of Media and Popular Culture), Michael Jackson All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, Can’t Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop’s Blockbuster Year, Prince: All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, Minnie Riperton’s Come to My Garden, and Earth, Wind & Fire’s That’s the Way of the World and The Langston Hughes Review Vol. 29, No. 2.

He has interviewed cultural figures such as Civil Rights Movement icons, Julian Bond and Myrlie Evers, former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Congressmen Bobby Scott, the late Donald McEachin, and Al Green, CNN political contributor, Van Jones, and award-winning film and television directors such as: Lionel C. Martin, Ralph McDaniels, Storm Saulter, Eugene Jarecki, and Jacob Kornbluth. He’s interviewed celebrity family members: Bob Marley’s son and daughter, Rohan and Karen Marley, Marvin Gaye’s widow, Janis Gaye, and Alex Haley’s grandson, Michael Baker, ordinary people doing extraordinary things, like Sara Baldwin, whose groundbreaking business resurrected a shattered rural Virginia town, and legendary musicians such as: Otis Williams, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, Bill Withers, Kenny Gamble, Kashif Saleem, Chuck D., Questlove, Larry Dunn, Teddy Riley, Leon Ware, Leon Sylvers III, Fred Wesley, Ronald “Kool” Bell, Patrice Rushen, Malcolm Cecil & Robert Margouleff, Lonnie Liston Smith, Reggie Lucas, John Oates, Narada Michael Walden, Chris Jasper, Brian Jackson, Kurtis Blow, Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels, Robin Millar, Jermaine Dupri, Dallas Austin, among countless others.

He has covered race, culture, politics, and music producing feature and cover stories on musical luminaries such as Prince, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Sly & the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Patrice Rushen, Pharoah Sanders, Billy Preston, Kashif, Whitney Houston, Earth, Wind & Fire, Janet Jackson, Minnie Riperton, Gil Scott-Heron, Don Cornelius, Teddy Riley, The Soulquarians, The Temptations, D’Angelo, Sade, Phil Collins, Tears for Fears, A Tribe Called Quest, Missy Elliott, Timbaland, The Neptunes, Run DMC, Public Enemy, among several others.

In 2020, he was featured on season four of the Peabody & Emmy award-winning Netflix documentary series, Hip-Hop Evolution. In 2022, he was featured on season sixteen of the NAACP award-winning TV One documentary series, Unsung. This year, he will be featured as a season-long guest on Unsung. He has been interviewed by BBC Radio, The Times in London, England, American Urban Radio Networks (AURN), Roland Martin Reports, Joe Madison Sirius XM Radio Show, The Black News Channel, and the award-winning Dr. Vibe Show in Toronto, Canada, for his music, political, and cultural writing. Currently, he works at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA.