King Willonius

There is a particular kind of laughter the culture has always understood: the laughter that is not the opposite of pain but its witness. The culture has been waiting a long time for someone who could carry that laughter from the comedy stage into the recording booth without losing a drop of either. King Willonius is that someone. He grew up on Martin Lawrence and sharpened his eye on Paul Mooney, Dave Chappelle, and Patrice O’Neal. A South Beach Comedy Festival winner and NBC Stand Up for Diversity finalist, he is a stand-up comedian first, and everything else he makes still carries that stage in it. He wrote “BBL Drizzy,” the R&B parody Metro Boomin sampled for the instrumental that soundtracked the Drake-Kendrick feud. In 2026 he turned Drake’s “Shabang” into a Broadway-style musical, and the internet answered with fan performances and mock audition videos. Now there is UNHINGED: eleven tracks of soulful R&B, sharp wordplay, and the comic timing of a man who has worked rooms for a living, including “Shabang (The Musical)” featuring Stevie Mackey. Think the new-age Weird Al, but for the culture: the groove is serious, the bars are funny, and neither one is lying to you. Start with “Shabang (The Musical).” Then play the album front to back. Then try to tell me you didn’t laugh, and that something didn’t ache a little, too.