Keenan Williams gives up radio life as DJ Knyce for new work in screen printing business

CLEVELAND, Ohio — DJ Knyce, real name Keenan Williams, was an energetic and popular on-air personality in Cleveland for Radio One station Power 107.9-FM for years. But in June of 2019, seemingly out of the blue, he decided to leave it all behind to work full-time on his own screen-printing business with his girlfriend, Brittany.

It’s a big change for sure, but Williams says the peace of being in the NyceCo print shop with just his machines was welcome all the same.

Williams dreamed of being in radio from a very young age.

“When I was younger, my cousin and I would make up these radio shows,” Williams says. “She had a Talkboy recorder like on the ‘Home Alone’ movies. When I was about 13, my uncle DJ Supreme, who was a big mixtape DJ in the city, started showing me how to deejay. Those kinda started to go hand in hand. I would emcee weddings and people would tell me that I had a nice voice. From there, I started doing clubs (the Potluck and Thousands parties with DJ Step One and the Varsity Squad were known to be epic) and it was just a natural progression for me to become a DJ on air.”

Williams held down multiple roles at WENZ 107.9-FM, and even won an Ohio Hip Hop Award for Best Radio Host.