The Wrldfms Tony Williams

Antony Von Williams, known professionally as the Wrldfms Tony Williams, is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Williams is the first cousin of American rapper Kanye West and has contributed vocals or songwriting to most of his albums, beginning with The College Dropout.

Early life Williams grew up an only child in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Both his mother and father had musical backgrounds, and Williams was given his first instrument, a saxophone, at the age of eight. He grew up singing in youth choirs at church and played in the marching band through his tenth grade year of high school. Williams love for music continued throughout his early adulthood as he went on to form several bands that ranged in style from funk, rock, alternative, and Christian alternative, and took on the role as lead vocalist. He is the cousin of American rapper Kanye West.

Musical career Songwriter Williams' name appears on Kanye West's albums as Tony "Penafire" Williams which is the pseudonym he uses when crediting himself as a writer. He was a co-writer of two songs on The College Dropout, the Grammy Award winning 2004 album, following which Williams was invited to write for all of West's subsequent albums.

On the 2005 MTV documentary, Composing History The Making of Late Registration, he was featured producing vocals for Brandy on the song "Bring Me Down", which he co-wrote. During that documentary, West described Williams as being "a great writer with a cutting edge voice."

Singer

Tony Williams first became noticed as a singer when he debuted on Kanye West's Grammy winning album The College Dropout, singing a version of the gospel hymn "I'll Fly Away". By the second album, Late Registration, Kanye was giving Williams shout outs on the song, "We Major" which gave rise to the line Kanye fans use in reference to Williams, "I gotta say what's up to Tony Williams". On that same album Tony wrote the hook for the song, "Roses", which featured him singing with Patti LaBelle. This album not only promoted Tony Williams name, but for the first time fans were able to match his voice and name with a face. He was featured on the song and the video for "Drive Slow". Later, he was seen singing with Kanye when West was featured on the MTV television series, Life and Rhymes of Kanye West.

By the time Kanye went on the Touch the Sky Tour, Williams was known as the background singer that always accompanied West, including on several world tours.

Williams is one of a few performers who have performed at two different Inaugural Balls; the Neighborhood Ball where he performed with Jay-Z on the song "History", and the Youth Ball where he performed with Kanye West. His voice is recognized on some popular Hip Hop songs, having performed with, for example, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Nas, the Game, and Rick Ross.

In March 2010, Williams released his first mainstream project in the form of a mixtape, The World Famous Tony Williams: Finding Dakota Grey which was released with the GOOD Music stamp. This project was a collection of original music, covers, and remixes, including the "Dreaming of your love remix" with the French rapper Matt Moerdock.

In October 2010, Williams released his first single "Everything About You" from his debut studio album, King or the Fool, which was released on February 14, 2012.

Featured artist The first time Williams experienced artistic autonomy was in 2007 when he made an appearance on Kanye's Can't Tell Me Nothing mixtape, singing a song he had written and that was produced by West, "Dreaming of Your Love". This legitimized him as a featured artist. It was at that time that Williams added "The World Famous" to his name to differentiate himself from the famous drummer with the same name, and because in the vocal sample of the song "Dreaming of Your Love" the intro says, "You're listening to the world famous". Williams has had songs played on Brazilian airwaves, where he sang some of the vocals in Portuguese, and some musical chart success in France.

On January 13, 2025, West posted an image of him and Williams during the 2016 Yeezy Season 3 event on his Instagram profile, confirming a possible collaboration between the two on West's twelfth studio allbum, Bully (2026); he later appeared on the deluxe edition of the album on the track "Mission Control".

Discography

Studio albums + List of albums, with selected information Title Album details King or the Fool: An Opera, Vol. 1 Released: February 14, 2012 Label: The High Society Formats: CD, digital download A Fish Without a Bicycle Released: June 16, 2023 Label: Curb Records Formats: CD, digital download

EPs + List of extended plays, with year released Title Album details The 7th Day Released: July 22, 2017

Format: Digital download

Mixtapes + List of mixtapes, with year released Title Album details Finding Dakota Grey Released: March 2, 2010

Format: Digital download Some of My Best Rappers Are Friends Released: January 13, 2012

Format: Digital download

Singles

As lead artist + List of promotional singles, showing year released and album name Title Year Album "Everything About You" 2010 "Sleepover" 2012 King or the Fool: An Opera, Vol. 1 "Another You" (featuring Kanye West) "Stuck in the Middle" 2016 "Deck the Halls" 2020 "Amen (Reborn)" 2021 "Everybody Knows" A Fish Without a Bicycle "Anymore"

Other charted songs + List of songs, with selected chart positions, showing year released and album name Title Year Peak chart positions Album US AUS CAN "Donda"(Kanye West featuring Stalone and the World Famous Tony Williams) 2021 58 38 48 Donda "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Album credits