Willie D, the Fifth Ward-bred founder of Houston rap pioneers the Geto Boys, is marking his 60th birthday with an all-star roast at Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land. The event, dubbed “The Roast of Willie D: Cooked by Legends,” is set for Wednesday, October 28, and will be recorded live for television, arriving just days before his actual birthday on Sunday, November 1.
D.L. Hughley will host the roast, with Cedric the Entertainer and Houston native Ali Siddiq among the featured comedians, according to the Houston Chronicle. Organizers say more guests will be announced in the coming weeks, promising a lineup of comedians, musicians and surprise appearances. Hughley and Cedric the Entertainer share a well-worn comedic partnership dating back to Spike Lee's 2000 concert film The Original Kings of Comedy, which grossed more than $38 million and helped cement both men as national comedy stars.
Tickets for the roast go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through ATG Tickets, per the Houston Chronicle's reporting, though presale access reportedly opens Wednesday ahead of that general release, according to CultureMap Houston. Smart Financial Centre, an $84 million venue owned by the City of Sugar Land and operated by ATG Entertainment, opened in January 2017 and can seat up to 6,400 guests, making it the primary indoor performance venue in Fort Bend County, per the City of Sugar Land Economic Development office.
From Fifth Ward Roots to Rap-A-Lot Records
Willie D, born William James Dennis, is turning 60 as one of the last surviving founding voices of the Geto Boys, the group that formed in Houston's Fifth Ward in the late 1980s and, per the Chronicle, put Southern hip-hop on the national map. Recording for Rap-A-Lot Records, the Geto Boys pioneered horrorcore, a subgenre built on horror-themed lyrics and imagery, and the classic lineup included Willie D, Scarface and Bushwick Bill. Their 1991 single “Mind Playing Tricks on Me,” co-written by Willie D, peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped push the album We Can't Be Stopped to platinum status, according to Alchetron.
Before music, Willie D built a different kind of discipline. He took up boxing at age 11 on Houston's north side and went on to win the Texas State Golden Gloves Championship as an 18-year-old amateur in 1985, according to Wikipedia. That toughness carried into his public reflections on his path to this milestone. “People told me that I would not live to be 18 years old,” Willie D said, per the Chronicle's reporting on the upcoming roast.
A Community Tradition Scaled Up for the Arena
Willie D has described the format itself as an extension of Black community tradition rather than a Hollywood-style celebrity roast. Roasts, he said, started at barbershops, street corners and family gatherings and are rooted in community. He has promised the Sugar Land event will feel the same way even under television cameras, calling it something familial, funny and ultimately a good time.
The classic Geto Boys trio can't fully reunite for the occasion. Founding member Bushwick Bill, born Richard Shaw, died in June 2019 at age 52 following a battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, according to Wikipedia. He had joined the group as a dancer in 1986 before becoming a core vocalist. Surviving member Scarface has faced his own serious health struggles in recent years, including a 2021 kidney transplant and open-heart surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital in late August 2024, a recovery Hoodline covered at the time.
Still Recording, Still Broadcasting
Willie D continues to make music as a solo artist and has built out a second career in digital media. In July 2021, he and Scarface launched Geto Boys Reloaded, a weekly podcast on Charlamagne Tha God's Black Effect Podcast Network with iHeartMedia covering music, culture and social issues, per The Root. He also hosts Willie D Live, a podcast featuring celebrity guests and coverage of culture and current events.
Houston native Ali Siddiq, one of the confirmed roasters, brings his own hard-won storytelling credentials to the bill. Siddiq recorded his breakthrough 2018 Comedy Central special It's Bigger Than These Bars inside the Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas, drawing directly on his history of incarceration, according to Wikipedia. Sugar Land's Smart Financial Centre has increasingly become a gathering place for Houston hip-hop milestones, having hosted Bun B's anniversary throwdown earlier this year.
