- Born
- Nicknames
- Maestro
- Maestro Fresh Wes
- "Wes Williams is one of the finest actors in the country", says award-winning, Canadian film director Gail Harvey. An inductee into The Scarborough Walk of Fame, Wes is also the recipient of The 2003 Reel World Film Festival Trailblazer Award. In the summer of 2008 he will begin filming season two of the riveting George F. Walker/ Dani Romain series 'The Weight', working alongside Cle Bennett (Doomstown/Guns), Linda Hamilton (The Terminator) and Sharon Lawrence (NYPD Blues). Wes was praised for his portrayal of Tony Bogart in "Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story" which also starred Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx as the former gang leader/Nobel Prize nominee. He has appeared in several other film and television projects including Poor Boy's Game, Instant Star, Four Brothers, Soul Food and Paid In Full. During the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, Poor Boy's Game premiered with Wes playing a supporting role and featuring two of his songs on the film score. As one of Canada's most successful and influential Hip Hop artists, Wes 'Maestro' Williams was recently selected to be the guest speaker for the Governor General of Canada's Summit on Urban Arts when Her Excellency visited Vancouver, BC. He has received two Juno Awards and his albums have reached gold and platinum status. His signature song "Let Your Backbone Slide" remains the only Canadian Hip Hop single to ever go gold. Wes has always been community oriented and has made a serious impact on his country in many different capacities. He continues to support several charitable organizations such as War Child, Save The Children, Covenant House, Special Olympics, Battered Women's Support Services (BWSS) and The African AIDS Society.- IMDb mini biography by: Tamara Williams
- Was only supposed to appear in one episode of Instant Star but impressed the producers so much he became a supporting lead on all four seasons of the award- winning TV series.
- Is the first Canadian hip-hop artist to have a song on Billboard's "Top 20 Rap Singles" chart.
- To this day, "Let Your Backbone Slide" is the top selling single by a Canadian hip hop artist.
- Wes' return to the charts in 1998 was marked by the single "Stick to Your Vision," for which he sampled the Guess Who hit, "These Eyes."
- Released under the name "Maestro Fresh Wes," his 1989 single "Let Your Backbone Slide" was the first Top 40 hit for a Canadian rapper.
- There's so much hip-hop talent in Toronto and Canada as a whole - I wanna see it expand, and I want the whole world to acknowledge us on a bigger level. (Western Gazette, January 30th 2001)
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