REEK DA VILLIAN IS BUSTA RHYMES NEW PROTEGE!

An ex-con has a budding rap career--thanks to a lucky break four years ago when he went into a store for a t-shirt and came out with a record deal.

Tariek Williams - known as Reek Da Villian in the hip hop world - bumped into rap mogul Busta Rhymes in 2006 inside a clothing shop in Uniondale, L.I.

Williams, now 28, kept his cool and freestyled on the spot for five minutes straight.

Two days later, Williams was a part of Flipmode, Rhymes' label at the time. "I called his ass and he hung up on me," Rhymes joked. "He thought I was a prank caller!"

"The Gift," Williams' 10th mixtape, was released Friday under The Conglomerate record label headed by Rhymes, who celebrated alongside Williams at HK Lounge Thursday night.

Life wasn't always so glittering for the rising star.

Born and raised in Roosevelt, L.I., Williams lost his father at the age of 9 and was incarcerated for gun possession in 2003.

"Jail was the best thing that happened for me," Williams said.

"When you go to jail it's just you, you're by yourself," he said. "You have to meet new people, learn how to become friends with strangers and pick out who's good and bad, and overall it just turned me into a man and it showed me what I didn't want to do. "

After his release in 2004, he finished his bachelor's degree in communications from Nassau Community College and began recording again.

"I ain't let it slow me down. I came out, I got right back into school and I graduated," he said.
Rhymes recalled the day he first heard his protege rap.

"He didn't come off to me like the regular - you hear a lot of dudes all the time," he said. "He made sure the impression he left was an everlasting one - and that's how I felt."

The hottest track on the new mixtape, "Mechanics Remix" - which features heavy-hitters Swizz Beats, Cam'Ron, Vado, Method Man, Nelly and Rhymes--has already created a lot of hype and anticipation for Williams' first studio album, which is in the works.

"The jail and losing my dad so young made me realize I need to cherish everything," Williams said.
"This is only the beginning."


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