Born William Williams, El Da Sensei is a Newark, NJ-born emcee, whose career started in earnest back in the 1990s as one-half of the beloved and pioneering hip-hop duo The Artifacts. The Artifacts — Williams and his group mate Tame One — first rose to fame with the hit single, “Wrong Side of the Tracks,” which caught the attention of Stretch and Bobbito, who invited them onto their legendary, taste-making WKCR radio show. After appearing on Stretch and Bobbito’s show, the duo signed to Big Beat/Atlantic Records.
Their debut album, 1994’s Between a Rock & a Hard Place featured “Wrong Side of the Tracks,” which was fittingly the album’s lead single and video, as well as “C’Mon Wit’ the Git Down” and “Dynamite Soul.” The duo supported the album with tours of the US, Europe and Japan, while being instrumental in the development of the backpack hip-hop movement.
Their sophomore album, 1996’s That’s Them featured the underground scene hits “The Art of Facts” and “The Ultimate,” Shortly, after, That’s Them‘s release, the duo split up. Williams went out on his own, traveling the world, making appearances on numerous compilations released in Japan, Norway and Germany.
2002 saw the release of his solo debut Relax, Relate, Release, which featured single “Frontline.” Building upon his growing reputation as a solo artist, his sophomore album, 2006’s The Unusual, which featured the Illmind-produced “Crowd Pleasa” was released to critical applause.
Since then, the Newark-born emcee has been busy:
2007’s Global Takeover saw El Da Sensei teaming up with Polish production duo The Returners and was initially released through Polish label Asfalt Records with a digital release through Coalmine Records.
In 2008, Belgian producer Chillow reached out to the New Jersey-based emcee. As the story goes, Chillow asked El Da Sensei to take part in a collaboration with a collection of producer friends. That collaboration was the Art of Raw compilation, which eventually included El Da Sensei’s “Bomb MC.” The album also featured guest spots from Brand Nubian‘s Sadat X, J-Live, Organized Konfusion and a list of others.
He continued his collaboration with The Returners continued with 2010’s The Money EP and Global Takeover 2: Nu World GT2.
By 2013 Chillow had began the ‘n Chillow series, a series of albums that saw the Belgian producer collaborating with a series of internationally-based emcees. The first album, the Belgian produced invited Reap Raw and El Da Sensei to Belgium to work on material. This lead to 2015’s Sensei ‘n Chillow and Jefferson ‘n Chillow, which featured guest spots from El Da Sensei, John Robinson and Reap Raw and more.
2017 saw the final part of the ‘n Chillow series, that year’s Sensei ‘n Chillow: We Bring It Live,
After that the New Jersey-born emcee teamed up with Brand Nubian’s Sadat X on 2018’s XL. 2018 also saw the release the previously unreleased El Da Sensei and K-Def collaboration, The Jersey Connection.
2022 saw The Artifacts reunite for that year’s No Expiration Date, a collaboration with Buckwild. Along with that, El Da Sensei has also continued to release solo albums, including his most recent, 2024’s The Unexpected.
This year though marks the 20th anniversary of the release of his sophomore album The Unusual. Fat Beats, who released the album has celebrated the occasion with a 20th anniversary edition. Adding to the celebratory occasion, the Newark-born emcee recently shared a video for the Illmind-produced “Hold On.” “Hold On” sees the veteran emcee spitting bars, bars, bars and more bars over a lush DJ Premier-meets-Pete Rock-styled production featuring a looped and twinkling keyboard-driven sample, bursts of shimmering synths, boom-bap beats. Yes, if you’re an OG — and apparently I am an OG these days — this one will bring back memories of making mixtapes from the radio.
Directed by Reemofilmedit, the accompanying, stylishly shot and edited video for “Hold On” follows the emcee through Europe.
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