BACKGROUND
Crissy Criss aka Chris Williamson was born May 1987 at Newmarket Hospital, Suffolk. Child to former Dubai & Greece international Champion Jockey ‘Kevin Williamson’, best known for working for the King of Greece as a race horse Jockey in the late 1980's to early 90's. Crissy was raised in Leytonstone in the East of London after growing up in area's such as Newmarket, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk around the age of 2-3 years old when mother 'Tracey' met Kenny Ken, who was at the time playing Acid House & Jungle Techno. It was then Crissy was introduced to a set of decks at the age of 5.
Tracey, Kenny and Chris shortly settled down after moving to East London when mother Tracey got involved in the music scene by becoming Kenny's agent and starting her own agency called ‘Ton Promotions’ then later changed to ‘Ton Management’.
DJ CAREER
Crissy Criss first got in to DJing at the age of 9, when music started to take a part
in Crissy's life, any chance to jump to the decks while step dad Kenny was not in would be frequent, Needles would be broke and Records would be missed placed. It was time that Crissy had to invest in his own pair of decks & equipment if this is what he wanted to do as a hobby.
Crissy's hobby then changed in to something serious when he landed a spot on London’s Kool FM at the age of 11 in 1998 with Micky Finn's prodigy 'Logan D' who was also 15 years old at the time. Doing a weekly show on Kool FM gave Crissy the exposure that he needed to move forward in his DJ Career.
Crissy's first gig was at a Festival at The Essex Show Ground, covering for Kenny Ken at the last minute along side Mickey Finn, Andy C and GQ to name a few on the bill. A a year later came Crissy's first ever DJ booking in 2000 at The End club, a club notoriously known for its loud sound system, Drum&Bass veteran 'DJ Zinc' had requested for Crissy to play on the night as a warm up DJ along side Mampi Swift, Bad Company, Andy C, Zinc to some that was on the line up.
Not long after establishing himself as a small name on the Drum&Bass circuit as the youngest DJ out there, Bookings started to pile in after mother 'Tracey', who was booking agent for EZ Rollers, Kenny Ken, Peshay, Moose, Nicky Blackmarket and a load more at the time. Crissys first abroad gig was in Germany at 'One Love' alongside Bryan G, Foxy, Kenny Ken, Ray Keith, Navigator to name some.
Since the early years of DJ bookings in 2000 to 2004, gigs have pored in from everywhere, taking Crissy Criss across the world to places like Canada, USA, Germany, Estonia, France, Norway, Spain and many more places to play in front of thousand's and thousand's of people while still attending school weekly.
RADIO
Crissy's radio career started in 1998-1999 when landing a weekly show on London’s premier D&B station 'Kool FM' along with Logan D for a number of years. The youngsters then got there own shows in late 2003 which gained them more support and promotion in there own field’s.
In early 2004, Crissy thought it was time for a change by stepping off his long run at Kool FM and moving on, While in the move, Crissy was approached by Radio One's production team 'Somethin Else' after seeing a full page spread on Crissy in 'Knowledge Magazine'. 'Somethin Else' who produces such other radio program's as
'The Essential Mix' & 'Fergie' brought Crissy in to the Studio offices in Central London to record a pilot show for a brand new radio show for the BBC's notorious national 'Radio 1'. Radio 1 was very pleased what Crissy had to offer and signed the 17 year old straight away along with 5 other DJ's; Eddie Halliwell, Nic Fanchuli, Jon O Bir, Kutski and The Trophy Twins to take the airwaves with there new show 'The Residency'.
'The Residency' speaks for it self, giving one show to 6 DJ's for 6 Months then changing the line-up of DJs after the 6 months is up. The show was promoted throughout the station by Pete Tong and in all major music magazines across
the land. After the 6 Months was up, the line-up was recreated, 2 of the other DJs we're dropped and then show went on another 6 months and changed again, this time Trophy Twins gaining there own weekend morning show and new signings Tayo and Plastician hit the decks on the show bringing personal Dubstep and Breakbeat shows on to Radio1.
Crissy had been with BBC Radio 1 for two years after being dropped from the line-up to bringing two new Presenters for the show which also changed name from 'The Residency' to 'In New DJ's We Trust' & broadcast slot in mid 2006.
Before the last show on Radio One, Crissy was called for a meeting with one of BBC 1Xtra's head of programmes. It was there and then Crissy gained his own weekly 4 hour Drum&Bass radio show on the BBC's home for new black music 'BBC 1Xtra'.
PRODUCTION
Production for Crissy Criss started around the age of 13-14 when he was very much in to his music, inline skating, playing Football and what very much every other kid at that age loved, Playstation. Playstation brough out music production game ‘Music’ which Crissy had been playing a lot of and got in to music production that way. Crissy then moved to Music 2000 (PC) then got to grips with the basic’s of ‘Cubase’ in Kennys studio.
At the time, a upcoming DJ ‘Smokesta’ of Kool FM had set up High Grade Music as his own new record label and heard some of the stuff Crissy had been making and wanted to release ‘Hotshots’ a track that Crissy had been playing on his show. It was then Crissy there had a debut release on the streets on plastic at the age of 14 ‘I look back at that track now and I cringe haha’.
Not long after the release on HighGradeMusic, Crissy joined a youth college in Stratford, where Danny McMillan ran the a music course and tort people who was in school and out of school the how’s & what’s of music. It was there not only when Crissy began to learn even more music production skills and make tunes all day but it was where he met lyricist ‘Fumin’. Crissy & Fumin became a tag team at the college ‘If it wasn’t for Fumin then id probably wouldn’t be as much into doing the HipHop & Grime right now.
Crissy then took it a step further with sending his stuff to JB at Back2Basics Records. JB took a liking to this young producer decided to sign Crissy straight away to Back2Basics releasing his second Drum&Bass record ‘Playing on the Motorway’ & ‘Crunch’. Shortly after that release, Fumin was moving in big way with a 16 on the release of Lethal B’s ‘Forward Riddim’ which took the underground by storm.
This was time for Fumin and Crissy to stick there foot in the door, ‘I started producing like mad for Fumin’s mixtape Frekle Face Vol1, id drop him like 2 CD’s in a week, with at least 18 tracks on each’. Crissy then teamed up with cousin ‘NSD’ to produce a number of tracks. Crissy then hooked up with Karl Donaldson of ‘KMoose’ & Jade former of ‘Polydor Records’ . Fumin & Crissy put together and released a 4 track Grime E.P which had sold out in over a month.
Crissy then hooked up with award winning Mc Skibadee to release the HipHop banger ‘Tika Toc’ which gained support from Zane Lowe, Annie Mac, DJ Craze, Yoda, Plus One, Scratch Perverts and a former record of week and A List play listed on BBC 1Xtra
TELEVISION
At the age of 12, Crissy Criss started one of many to come television appearance’s by appearing in CBBC’s ‘SmART’ programme with friends inline skating in Romford skatepark, creating a join art Inline skate made out of inline skates. Mike Skinners ‘The Beats’ signing ‘Professor Green’ was also apart of the programme.
In late 2007, Crissy was approached by Channel 4/E4’s ‘Endermol’ production team to take part in a new series of Big Brother, called ‘Big Brother: Celebrity Hi Jack’.
It saw one celebrity a day taking control, with the help of Big Brother; organising their own tasks, making their own rules and talking to the housemates in the Diary Room. They were in charge of a set of housemates, ranging in age from 18–21 years old. The housemates competed to be the last to leave the house for a £50,000 prize. But yet, Crissy did not take part this series due do legal reasons and serious car crash weeks before the air of the launch.
KEEPIN IT CRISS
With all these ideas and no print to backdrop these projects, ‘Keep in it Criss’ was born. Crissy made sure everything that he was going to do, whether it be Records or T-shirts he wanted to be a brand name company to backdrop each and everyone of his upcoming projects. ’Keepin it Criss will be my marketable brand for putting out records to clothing to design work to tv media to mixtapes – anything!, you want to know why? Its because I! Keep it Criss and that’s all that matters!’
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