A multi-talented artist and musician, Edreys Wajed is best known outside of Buffalo under his stage name of Billy Drease Williams. This successful emcee and producer has been a member of both Raw Intel and The Elements, and founded the non-profit cultural preservation and educational organization The Art of Hip-Hop. A hiatus from recording has recently allowed this avid painter to focus on the visual aspects of his art — recently completing a series of large-scale portraits of American civil rights leaders William Wells Brown, Malcolm X, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frank Merriweather, Dr. Lydia T. Wright, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Harriet Tubman as part of The Freedom Wall, a project commissioned by one of the oldest public art institutions in America — the Albright-Knox Gallery.
