The world needs more artists like Wesley Willis. The overweight street singer from Chicago made a name for himself in the 1990′s with his quirky musical ramblings.
Wesley Willis was a diagnosed chronic schizophrenic who drew illustrations and sang songs which helped him build up a small cult following with his bizarre, three-chord rants about trivial everyday items, music, and people he knew [via]. He was known for riding the bus and talking to people around him, including himself.
For the first part of the ’90s Willis published several independently released tapes on which his songs appeared. Willis was 6-foot-6-inch tall and 350 lb. with a habit of head butting people. He gained a following in the early days of Napster after releasing hundreds of songs of his bizarre and simplistic music which became internet hits.
Willis passed away in 2003 but his songs still have found a home on the Internet. Even though he had hundreds of songs floating around out there, we thought we’d pick a few that we like best to highlight the career of such a unique individual that we believe a lot of people might not know about.
Wesley Willis – Kurt Cobain
Wesley Willis – Rock n Roll McDonalds
Wesley Willis – My Mother Smokes Crack Rocks
Wesley Willis – I Whipped Spiderman’s Ass
Wesley Willis – Cut the Mullet (Live)
