Shaylan Williams, 22, better known as Bentley Williams, is a native of Missouri who moved up to Green Bay, Wisconsin when he was in fourth grade. He is an up-and-coming hip-hop artist and last year opened for both Big Sean and Curren$y during two separate occasions at the Rave in Milwaukee. Williams just released his second mixtape “920’s Most Wanted” and sat down with the A-T to talk about his career as an artist. A-T: How did you get started? Williams: I started off singing when I was real, real young. I lived with my mom in Missouri at the time and she would always be playing music. I used to sing anything and everything from the Backstreet Boys to *NSYNC, to Bow Wow and Ruben Studdard. Then going into fourth and fifth grade, I moved to Wisconsin where I lived with my aunt, and that’s where I picked up rapping! I mean I’ve always listened to rap, just never really tried to dip my hand in the game ‘til I started getting older. A-T: What inspires you? Williams: What inspired me when I first got started was bettering myself and working on my delivery. Over the last couple years I have switched focus and took inspiration from my fans, the people I meet and the experiences I go through. Now I want to inspire kids younger than me, people my age and older than me to follow their dreams and never give up. Seeing people succeed at different things everyday keeps me motivated to achieve my own goals and dreams. A-T: What has been your best performance? Williams: I would say performing at the Sigma Pi Fraternity on the UWO campus was the highlight performance for me so far! Just because it was sold out and a lot of my close friends came out and showed me mad love. Sigma Pi also did an amazing job by hosting me and really just making sure I was comfortable. They’re an amazing group of brothers. A-T: What artist inspires you/do you like? Williams: 2 Pac is my biggest influence to date. He represented everyone and was a voice for more than just himself. People still to this day give a lot of credit to him cause he’s a legend! Drake also has been a huge idol and inspiration for me also just because he raps and sings. That’s something that I love to do and I got better doing my music by listening to him and really understanding where he came from when he was making his music and how he uses his voice. A-T: What are you looking forward to most about your rap career? Williams: I’m looking forward to working with a lot of different artists and being able to take away something different from everyone I work with and meet. In the rap game there is never a point where you know everything, you’re always learning new things from different people in the industry. You really have to be a sponge and soak up all the knowledge you can from the people that have been in the game and give you advice. A-T: Do you have any big shows or events coming up soon? Williams: As of right now and over the summer I’m taking a step back from shows. I’m going to work on making my own beats with a producer and get a sound behind myself as an artist. I believe that everything takes time and there is no need to rush this process. I’m happy with where I am as an artist right now. My next tour I will be going on is a national Sigma Pi Tour in Fall 2015. I work closely with the Sigma Pi Fraternity at UWO, and they have opened doors for me to go to other fraternities and perform, which is a once in a lifetime opportunity. A-T: Where can fans find your current music? Williams: I dropped my first mixtape “Un-Signed and Un-Heard” in 2014 and I just dropped my sophomore mixtape “920’s Most Wanted” in February. You can find my newest music and mixtape on BandCamp and SoundCloud.