Home to the Wildcats and the annual derby, Kentucky isn’t the quintessential hub for R&B and hip-hop talent. Yet, 24-year-old singer/songwriter/rapper, Bryson Tiller, has emerged from the streets of Louisville with his own brand of street soul that musically blends the urgency of trap music with the smoother sound of alternative R&B. Reared on the slow jams of 112, Dru Hill, Chris Brown and Omarion, Tiller realized his talent as a teen, serenading his female classmates and eventually creating his first recordings at a friend’s makeshift studio.
“When I was in high school, I used to sing to girls in the hallway, like record on girls’ voicemails, singing,” he recalls. “I went over [my homie’s] house, recorded the song, and got good and bad responses from it but it just made me wanna get better.”
Raised by his grandmother after his mother passed away when he was four years old, Tiller did little else than stay home, play video games and write music. After borrowing 600 dollars from a friend, he copped a mic, an interface, mic stand, filter and a laptop to piece together his own material. Visions of Soulja Boy’s Internet success danced in the back of his mind as he grabbed industry beats from SoundClick (an e-community reminiscent of the early music MySpace) and hummed melodies into the mic before uploading them on SoundCloud. Finally, the shy introvert found his outlet.
“I’m not very eXpressive in relationships and just in day-to-day talking to people,” admits Tiller. “So I use my songs to eXpress myself and really get my point across.”
His messages on waX don’t require rocket science to understand. Whether creating a scarecrow for gold diggers with the Street Fighter-sampled “Sorry Not Sorry” or talking that talk in bars on “Don’t Worry / Molly,” Tiller’s narratives are transparent and highly relevant for young Millennials on a mission in either life or love. Throw in 808s and Tiller will deliver what he calls “trap soul.”
“It’s just rap-influenced R&B,” he says of his go-to formula for songs.
In October 2014, Tiller released his biggest track to date, a self-reflective slow burner entitled “Don’t,” which garnered over 63 million listens on SoundCloud, an Instagram shout out from super-producer Timbaland and a direct message on Twitter from Drake, one of Tiller’s biggest musical influences. Self-recorded and miXed in his modest Louisville living room studio, the online success of “Don’t” came as a surprise to the young artist and indirectly confirmed Tiller’s life goals: make music that resonates.
With his ability to switch up from soft and tender R&B to braggadocious rap effortlessly, Tiller has earned the nickname Pen Griffey, a baseball influenced moniker that speaks not only to his proficiency as a songwriter, but to his roots in Louisville – home of the famous Louisville Slugger bat. A self proclaimed “culture nerd,” Bryson also cites video games, comic books, indie films and Japanese anime as inspirations for his unique style. But he’s quick to tell you that he’s a self-made man. “I do everything myself,” he says of recording his forthcoming album.
Though mapping out five-year plans isn’t his style, the father of a two-year-old daughter who juggled part-time gigs for UPS, Papa John’s and a moving company barely a year ago to make ends meet is now realizing how nothing is the same.
“There’s a quote out there that says, ‘It’s funny how day-by-day, nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different so what can you do with your goals today to make looking back to now feel satisfying?,’” he recalls. “Now, everything is completely different and it feels satisfying.”
Bryson Tiller Live at Vicar Street April 9th.
Tickets are €35.65 on sale this Friday at 10am
www.ticketmaster.ie