Prodigal Son, a eight-time Billboard-charting gospel rap artist who rhymes about his rough and tumble past on the streets, can be compared to a rose that grew from the concrete. Born Kelly Williams in the high-crime city of Canton, Ohio, Prodigal came into this world fighting, addicted to crack-cocaine at birth. He had four choices to escape poverty; music, sports, crime or working in a steel mill. He chose all four. Raised by his pops and stepmother, growing up in Canton was an everyday struggle, His stepmother didn’t have a great job for the majority of his childhood, and even…

Prodigal Son, a eight-time Billboard-charting gospel rap artist who rhymes about his rough and tumble past on the streets, can be compared to a rose that grew from the concrete. Born Kelly Williams in the high-crime city of Canton, Ohio, Prodigal came into this world fighting, addicted to crack-cocaine at birth. He had four choices to escape poverty; music, sports, crime or working in a steel mill. He chose all four.

Raised by his pops and stepmother, growing up in Canton was an everyday struggle, His stepmother didn’t have a great job for the majority of his childhood, and even though his father had a full time job for the city, money was scarce, his father would drink away any extra money. So at age 13, Kelly took to the streets to earn his bread and meat.
“I wasn’t robbing in the streets because everybody else was doing it,” Prodigal admits. “I was hustling to survive. Prodigal Son’s hustling caught up with him at 16 and landed him in a juvenile corrections facility for 1 year. It was during his first prison sentence that Prod was introduced to music by a fellow juvenile offender who was serving a life sentence.
But even though Kelly knew that music was his future, he was still knee deep in the streets. His life of crime landed him back behind bars before long, and between multiple probation violations stemming from a complicity to robbery charge, he spent a total of 2 years in prison.

By the end of his sentence, he turned his life over to Christ and decided to make Gospel rap music instead of secular music. He adopted the stage name Prodigal Son and dropped his underground debut CD Crossing the Red Sea in 2003. He burned the CD himself and put it in mom-and-pop stores on consignment. Shortly after, he released his follow-up album My Block in the same format, leading to a star role in the WalMart feature film Hidden Rage.
Prodigal received critical acclaim for both CDs and by the time his third album Kingdom Swagga-nomics hit, he had secured a distribution deal with INFINITY MUSIC DISTRIBUTION and charted at the Number 21 spot on Billboard. The following year, he came back with a compilation CD Welcome to HOLY-wood, featuring some of his closest friends. The compilation debuted at Number 18 on the Billboard Charts.

But even with Billboard charts and multiple award winnings and nominations, Prodigal Son has been criticized by the Christian community for his brutally honest lyrics, instead of recognition for his ability to shed light on the evils of the world. The September 2011 release of the album Deeper Than Church was his official departure from the Christian hip hop scene after the passing of his mother, grandmother and father all in the year of 2010. That album was nominated for the (2nd Round) of the Grammy’s for Best Gospel Rap Album.

With prayers and support from close friends, family and fans, Prodigal Son returned to gospel hip hop music and the culture after three years, securing a new recording deal under TYSCOT RECORDS/WARNER MUSIC GROUP. He also moved back to his birth city of Canton, Ohio from Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Since his return to Canton he created the theme song for the NBA G–League Canton Charge powered by the Cleveland Cavaliers, received the prestigious Mayors Proclamation, Ohio State Government and State of Ohio Proclamations, US Congress Award, along with a slew of Canton Repository awards including the City of Canton Proclamation, The Spotlight Award and Community Service Award. He has become the RE-ENTRY mentor for the Canton Police Department, Outreach coordinator for the local prosecutors office, board member of local organizations and a mentor to high risk juveniles on probation through his music academy Hollywood Music Academy, in which his jr. performers have been nominated for a 2018/2019 Stellar Awards for Youth Project Of The Year.

Now with a new release out of the Covid Pandemic “Church Dropout” Prodigal Son hopes to change bias minds of the church body and make them realize when one enters the church that embracing is more important than the judgment. Once one leaves the church his/her lives are at stake and this album shows you the life/pain and thoughts of a Church Dropout still seeking love .