UMSL alumnus Richard Williams, BA anthropology 2011, raps under the name Prince Ea. He’ll release a new album in March.

Richard Williams started getting serious about hip-hop in high school. But it was at the University of Missouri–St. Louis that he discovered he had something to say as a rapper, according to an interview with St. Louis Public Radio | 90.7 KWMU.

The UMSL alumnus, BA anthropology 2011, raps under the moniker Prince Ea, short for “Prince of the Earth.” In the St. Louis Public Radio interview, he recalled one day in his freshman year while at the Nosh in the Millennium Student Center, he freestyled:

It’s the theoretical physicist
Meticulous multidimensional lyricist
Ever since the colonial clipper ships
Came Pillaging innocent villages
I was discerning the difference
Between preemptive and preventative
Wars are riddled with disingenuous
Politicians configuring their constituents
To be oblivious to the divisiveness

One girl, he told the news station, came up to him after, “And she said ‘How are you gonna be a smart rapper,’ as if rappers are inherently stupid people. That’s kind of what she was getting at, and I just didn’t think that was true.”

Prince Ea has gone on to launch the “Make Smart Cool” campaign and has worked to present a hip-hop image that defies stereotypes.

His debut full-length album will be released in March. Follow Prince Ea on Facebook and Twitter for news on the album release. Visit the St. Louis Public Radio website to listen to reporter Adam Allington’s story about Prince Ea.