Brave Williams is a multi-talented businesswoman who enjoys using her talents to help others find joy in their lives. The singer, writer, actress, and fitness instructor decided to share her story with us.
What was that spark that started your creative journey?
The first time I heard Tupac’s “Keep Your Head Up” on the radio, I fell in love with the art of telling stories. From then on, I immersed myself in the Hip-Hop community by writing and performing spoken word. The rest is history.
Similar to Tupac, I can see the shadow of Baltimore in your artistry!
Absolutely! The culture in Baltimore definitely helped groom who I am as an artist. See, there were a lot of open mic spots that the city offered and that’s where I was able to practice and rehearse in front of live crowds — even the D.C. area, with their whole culture. The club music, the club scene, the producers I crossed paths with; just D.C. as a whole also played a role in birthing my career.
Your talents aren’t just limited to one lane; from acting to singing and even some spoken word. How did you find yourself diversifying your skills?
To be honest, they’re all connected. I was studying how to act at a young age before I even tried my hand at writing. Then during my learning, writing snatched my attention and following that, I geared my focus towards developing my voice. At that point I was in LA on acting sets trying to break into Hollywood, so for me they developed simultaneously and that’s still very much so. In particular, the past films I’ve worked on; The Christmas Lottery on BET and my first leading film Love.com streaming on Netflix, allowed me to showcase my acting alongside my music as well. Love.com featured one of my singles Options and the Christmas Lottery included my rendition of Santa’s Baby. As you can see, for me, the two are tethered.
You truly embraced your character on The Christmas Lottery for a great performance. Was this your first holiday acting role?
Yes! It’s always been a dream of mine to act in a holiday film and The Christmas Lottery granted my wish! The story is lighthearted and good spirited, and the film’s message about hope, love and family are the type of stories I love to bring alive. For those exact reasons, it brings me joy knowing that I have a hand in bringing someone else happiness. I definitely look forward to being involved in more holiday productions in the future. I’m already getting ready for Christmas 2021!
Along with your acting roles, you’ve also dabbled in the reality television realm while on R&B Divas LA. What differences did you notice when switching gears?
The two are very different and honestly the whole journey of reality television can be a scary situation. I always felt a specific type of personality was required to conquer these types of shows, but for me I was satisfied with staying true to who I was. I enjoy collaborating with other creatives and empowering women is a part of who I am. Witnessing the power us women possess, especially in the music industry, is just indescribable. So, having the opportunity to share a platform with such beautifully strong women with extensive resumes was important for myself to continue building upon these relationships. For me, I just knew as long as I stayed true to myself, I could share the positivity that can come from reality TV. Overall, I was honored to be on the same show alongside those brilliant women.
While building those relationships from notable singers in the R&B community, who are some other vocalists that shared a hand in creating the Brave Williams we see today?
After falling in love with Hip-Hop, I found my way to one of Mary J Blige’s best albums: What’s the 411? From there, that album led me to stumble upon the gifted Faith Evans. The commonality between all of my introductions to music was the merger of R&B and Hip-Hop which kept my attention. Following those two came Jill Scott’s combination of poetry and music. All in all, they guided me to such an inspirational place that I’ve loved since day one.
How do feel about the current state and the forgotten relationship between R&B and Hip-Hop?
Well, I feel like R&B today just isn’t highlighted like it was before. Now don’t forget, there’s some dope R&B artists out here today. The H.E.R.’s of the world, the SZA’s and Alicia Key’s; there’s plenty of women and even men who are still pushing and believing in the soulful genre I’ve grown up with. It just seems our current attention is solely focused on Hip-Hop artists: the Cardi B’s & Megan the Stallion’s, who are just as dope with their storytelling abilities. I just feel majority of our attention has been fixated down that lane leaving true R&B neglected and not receiving the recognition it truly deserves. It’s important for us as artists to not give up on that relationship between the two genres as well. That’s why I’m super excited about this new album I’m working on. In my eyes, I’m still merging the two because naturally I love Hip-Hop, but I will always crave a timeless R&B tune. I love the rhythm and the blues; the story telling through songs, and the transparent pain felt behind those stories…
We can hear just that in your new single, Don’t Tell me No. What was the inspiration behind this piece and your anticipated self-titled album, set to drop this year?
Well the single, Don’t Tell Me No is my first released ballad. I sought out to highlight the truth: that men also, like women, can be scared of being vulnerable with falling in love. So, Don’t Tell Me No is a plea to the guy in the relationship telling him; “Look I know you’ve had past disappointments, as have I. I know that you’ve gone through some things that could have potentially hardened your heart, but don’t let those disappointments dictate your love life forever. If we’re both here and we love each other, let’s do this love thing together and don’t tell me no.” My goal was to be honest about the battle of love and I felt like it was a perfect timing for its release. With all this noise suffocating our world between the social injustices and this presidency, I wanted to do my part with calming our lives down a little. Pushing people to remember that love conquers all during these terrible situations and that’s essentially what this new project is about.
Speaking of vulnerability, how has your creative spirit evolved during this pandemic?
For me, it really taught me how to be fearless. I tried something new and found myself floating towards opportunities I never would have imagined. This new reality change has me doing live workouts on Instagram through my fitness program: Brave Williams Fitness Club. Something I never thought I’d do. I never did a live virtual workout up until COVID mainly because I’m a hands-on person and prefer helping clients face to face. But, through accepting change, I expanded my fitness brand and shared this newfound outlet with celebrities such as LL Cool J, Taye Diggs, and Estelle to name a few. I’d interview them right before the workout and then we’d get straight to business! I love helping others fill their lives with self-love in every avenue possible and staying healthy while in shape was another way I’m able to lend out a helping hand. The virtual workouts were completely new to me and scared the mess out of me since I never thought of doing something like this before, but It definitely helped push my talents further. This current state of life has pushed me to become more fearless than ever before.
There’s a pattern of every talent you explore involving servicing others. Is that what fuels your motivation to keep going?
Absolutely, I’ve always known that as a little girl my purpose was to inspire. Lucky for me, there’s multiple ways to inspire people and I’ve chosen to help through my love for fitness, music, and acting. Music is just the universal language that brings people together and helps us navigate through our best and worst memories. You can hear a song that you’ve heard when you were going through something & then ten years later, you’ll hear it and it’ll bring you right back to that place. They will forever live timelessly in our lives. Then with acting, I love doing projects that make people feel good. Like you said, everything has a story to share. I encourage anybody, whatever your story is: good, bad, different, or whatever; never be ashamed of your narrative. Everything you’ve lived through is the fabric that created who you are. It happened to you for a reason and you came out of it with a lesson to learn. So never be ashamed of your story because it’s needed. Sharing my stories to help others is important to me and I truly do believe that is my purpose here on Earth.
Tiara Cooper
