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Producer, So So Def Records

Cedric “CedKeyz” Williams once called himself, “the man behind the Sho’ Nuff sound.” In fact, the Ohio native was the secret weapon for acts like Ciara and even Gnarls Barkley, but it wasn’t until he had a conversation with Ciara that CedKeyz decided it was time come out of the shadow of Jazze Pha.

“She said, ‘Ced, I don’t know how old you are, but I remember you when I was nobody,’ and she said, ‘You need to be further along.’ I thought about that and I was like, ‘You’ve got a point.’ So, the next day I did what I had to do,” he says.

CedKeyz left the Sho’Nuff camp and was quickly scooped up by Jermaine Dupri, who made him an in-house producer. Currently the former church organist is working on projects with Bad Boy recording artist Donnie Klang and So So Def prodigy Dondria. “I’ve worked on some albums ... [for] big names,” he says. “Sometimes I’ve gotten credit, sometimes I haven’t gotten credit. Most of the time I didn’t get credit, but that was my fault because I didn’t have a manager and I didn’t understand the mechanics of how things went.”

With a new publishing deal under his belt, CedKeyz is optimistic about the future, and he says he’s happier than he’s ever been. “Everybody’s been created for a reason and a purpose,” he says. “There’s nothing like that feeling when you find your purpose, it’s just the most liberating feeling you can ever have.” gavin philip godfrey

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