Commissioner Gordon Williams

BIO

“Commissioner" Gordon Williams has taken many paths during his musical career and has proven successful in many ventures. Dubbed the “Commissioner” by rapper KRS One—with whom he also worked very closely—his extensive resume includes multiple Grammy awards and numerous Gold and Platinum albums. Williams’ musical roots can be traced back to the Bronx, where as a teenager, he was involved in the advent of hip-hop as a breakthrough musical genre and culture. He started out as a DJ, and from there delved into song production. Gordon was signed by an independent record label as a producer and member of a group, which scored a top- five dance record. He then earned a production deal with Motown Records. This achievement led to Gordon’s emergence as a programmer and re-mixer.

Soon, his credits included projects with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Teddy Riley, Diana Ross, New Edition, Heavy D and Quincy Jones. In 1998, Williams further extended his creative reach and became Senior Director of A&R at Sony Music Entertainment. During this time, he worked on Lauryn Hill’s solo debut smash, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” and Will Smith’s blockbuster movie and soundtrack “Men in Black.” His label duties involved looking after the likes of Alicia Keys, Wyclef Jean and 50 Cent and various movie soundtracks. On “Miseducation”, he reached in his bag of tricks and tied the vocals, music and effects together to help create one of the biggest-selling albums of 1998-1999.

The album was critically acclaimed and the “Commissioner” walked away with two Grammy's for his work on what was hailed as the Album of the Year. During those years, he was also the live sound mixer for Ms. Hill’s world tour. In 2024 “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” was inducted into the Gammy Hall of fame and was also named by Apple Music the number one album of all time. In 2000, Williams won another Grammy for participating in the mixing of Santana's multi-platinum "Supernatural" (Arista) which also won for Album of the Year. His credits include Joss Stone’s multi-platinum “Mind, Body and Soul,” Damien Marley’s “Welcome to Jamrock, as well as Amy Winehouse’s critically acclaimed debut album entitled “Frank”.

Recently, he was brought on as music supervisor on “The Banker” (Apple TV) starring Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson as well contributed to Hallie Berry’s film “Bruised” and “Last Looks” featuring Mel Gibson.

In 2019, Williams was named Good Will Ambassador to his mother’s home island, St. Lucia. As a newly appointed diplomat, his focus is on developing the creative community and industry on the island as well as through out the Caribbean. His company, Lalabela Entertainment is focused on content creation and world wide distribution for various media outlets in Africa and the Caribbean.