ORLANDO — Austin Williams remembers the knock, the hard rap on the door of his Santa Monica apartment that changed his life forever. In the spring of 2021, Williams was spiraling. A year earlier, his mother, burdened by financial problems, attempted suicide. In the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, he got into an unhealthy relationship. His girlfriend got pregnant. He wanted to keep the child. She didn’t. To escape, he drove from Texas to southern California, shacking up in an one-bedroom apartment his co-manager, writer and director Pete Berg, rented for him. He thought getting away would help him. It didn’t. A marijuana dependency worsened. The isolation broke him. One day, he trashed Berg’s gym. He uploaded a diss track aimed at his promoter, Eddie Hearn. The next day, the knock woke him. The police were at the door. Berg was with them. He walked in, looked at Williams and said, “It’s time to go.”
“I was so messed up,” Williams says. “I needed help. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t get it.”
