“If you try to do trap rap, or you try to do boom-bap, people say, ‘Oh, you’re trying to be like you’re from Atlanta, you’re trying to be like you’re from New York,’ ” says Austin Willé, better known as AyyWillé, who’s seated on a bench on First Avenue North, overlooking the Cumberland. “But when we do this music that involves the musicians, and it’s kind of jazzy, and it’s kinda funky and bluesy … now that becomes, ‘Oh, those are legitimate artists from Nashville.’ That melting-pot sound, just including musicians in the mix, creates the Nashville sound.”
If you’ve been to a recent show featuring Nashville rappers like Brian Brown or Ron Obasi, you’ve probably seen Willé onstage, sharply dressed and wielding his tenor sax. He’s not just joining in, but making his smooth-edged, athletic sound — influenced in part, he says, by players who deep jazz-heads are most likely to know, like Ronnie Laws and John Klemmer — an integral part of the performance.
Born and raised in East Nashville, Willé grew up with kids who would become outstanding MCs and producers across Music City’s diverse collection of hip-hop scenes. Willé developed a love for rap along with his peers, but his love of jazz began with his mom’s record collection. It grew through lessons at the nonprofit W.O. Smith Community Music School, where he teaches today. As a youngster, he took advantage of every ensemble he could join at the school and every chance it offered him to see or talk with pro musicians. These experiences gave Willé a nuts-and-bolts understanding of being a pro musician to go along with his passion for playing; he honed both as a teenager at Nashville School of the Arts.
At Tennessee State University, Willé and some friends — including drummer Timothy Beaty, violinist Riz Oshe’ and saxophonist Chazen Singleton — formed a group called The Street Band Clan. They performed through much of the 2010s on the sidewalk opposite the Sbarro at the corner of Commerce Street and Second Avenue. Their goal was eventually to bring their blend of jazz, R&B and hip-hop sounds into the rap world. They repeatedly dominated the open mic at now-shuttered venue Jazz and Jokes, which was emceed by outstanding rhymesmith Rashad tha Poet; he hired the group as his backing band. Circa 2018, Willé, Singleton and Beaty toured the world as bandmates of blues-expanding phenomenon Adia Victoria.
Willé is quick to credit those who nourished his potential, gave him gigs or simply gave him a good example. He points to Victoria for the way she approaches branding herself as an artist and commanding respect for herself.
“When I got back to Nashville, I had a different spirit about myself,” Willé says of returning home from tour. “The first thing I thought about was, ‘Wow, I’m gonna come back to a city where there are so many world-renowned musicians, and nobody knows their names.’ ”
Going forward, when he got asked to record, he asked to have his name included as a featured artist on the track, sometimes instead of payment. So far, artists he’s worked with have been receptive, and he encourages other musicians to ask for the same. If you search for AyyWillé on streaming services, in addition to his own music you’ll see him listed as a featured guest on releases like Brian Brown’s Journey, Tim Gent’s In Every Fall and Quez Cantrell’s In the Rou9h. All are excellent examples of that aforementioned Nashville hip-hop sound that’s in the process of being born, and has been getting well-deserved national attention.
The pandemic has been especially difficult for Willé, whose livelihood and personal expression are both bound up in performing. As he struggled with depression, he began to study Buddhist teachings and various aspects of Japanese culture. An artistic practice called kintsugi, in which broken pottery is repaired with precious metals, caught his attention. After our conversation, Willé says he’s headed to the studio to work on a new solo EP titled Kintsugi.
“The idea is not to put something back together as if it was not broken in the first place — but to show that it did break. And it was not only fixed, but has been fixed with gold, and now becomes a one-of-one piece, because nothing will be broken in the same way.”
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