This book was finished before his death and published a year after. It’s not sensational or salacious in any way. It’s an honest memoir from a talented performer with a lot to say. It’s a good read that will stick with me.

I didn’t know much about him – like most I first came across him on The Wire, and have read a dozen or so magazine profiles over the years. I knew he was addicted to drugs when he was younger, but had no idea the depth or frequency of his relapses.

He really lays it bare here. His addiction permeates every major life event – finding success as an actor on The Wire, meeting Obama for the first time, even while he’s touring around promoting his social causes. In his own words, he makes it clear that he’ll never be free of his addiction, he’s only one bad choice away from total disaster.

Which, as it turns out, was exactly what happened.

But what’s compelling about this book is the story Williams tells of his life aside from the drugs. Deciding at 22 that he’s going to be a dancer, and actually making it happen. Even after a fight resulted in his huge facial scar, he kept working and learned to turn it into an asset to his style.

He’s in the video for 100% Pure Love. Can you spot him?

He’s the middle dancer when they do the 3 guys in suits. He gets a close up at 2:43:

He’s also in a Taylor Dayne video. I won’t subject you to it but here’s a still:

He writes about how the characters he portrayed affected his mental and physical wellbeing — how Tupac Shakur imparted his mantra of ‘come ready’: arrive at a shoot in character, ready to start immediately, and how that practice blurred the lines between acting and real life, making it even more difficult to stay sober.

At its core, the book is about institutionalized racism – how young Black men (and women, but mostly men) are denied opportunity, sabotaged, setup to fail, and treated with unfair harshness by the system. His own nephew Dominic Dupont’s story is a key part of Williams’ narrative. Dupont is a guy who got made a terrible mistake as a teenager, spent 20 years incarcerated before emerging as a role model, activist and inspiration for change in the world. Dupont even showed sympathy for one of the men who sold Williams the fatal drugs when he was sentenced for the crime.

Williams knew how lucky he was to have the career he had, and how one bit of bad luck when he was young could have taken it all away. What he feared most — that one bad choice — turned out to take his life too soon.

We’re lucky to have had him as long as we did.