Chicago may be one of the most violent cities in the country and home to Chief Keef’s Drill Movement (an expression of struggle or glorification of violence?), but producer A-Villa is set on clandestinely demolishing his hometown’s negative stereotype.
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Born Adrian Villagomez, the local hip-hop superhero comes from a humble Mexican household and grew up in the Golden Era of hip-hop. Influenced by Common’s deep rhymes and Twista’s chopper-style flow, A-Villa would soon come to dream of becoming a major hip-hop beat maker, but not without fulfilling his parents’ wish first.
“Coming up under Mexican parents, their thing was to have a bright future,” said A-Villa. “[I had to] go to school, be the first one from my family to graduate high school and go to college and all that. So, I was living their dream essentially.”
A-Villa went on to graduate high school and earn a college degree in Finance from DePaul University before immersing himself in the real world and climbing the corporate ladder. After five years of the monotonous 9-5 routine, he set out to feed his creative impulse and purchased his own MPC drum machine to teach himself how to create beats. What started out as a hobby, turned into something more after the death of one of his idols, Guru of Gangstarr. “Obviously, I didn’t know him personally so it didn’t hit me from that perspective,” he explained. “But I realized that I could be here today and gone tomorrow, so I thought, ‘what am I going to leave behind for my loved ones? What is my legacy?’”
While working as an executive banker by day and serving as a full-time dad to his two-year-old daughter Avalyn, Villa — who sites musical influences like Cypress Hill, Biggie Smalls and the Motown family — concocted beats at night for years until he finally completed his first LP in 2014, Carry On Tradition. In the new era of hip-hop, there aren’t many producers who can boast about gathering an army of rap stars like Action Bronson, Big K.R.I.T, Noreaga, Kool G Rap, Joell Ortiz, Rapsody, Killer Mike, Chance The Rapper, AZ, Freddie Gibbs, Inspectah Deck, Guilty Simpson, Joe Budden, the late Sean Price, and many more for their debut album.
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A photo posted by A-Villa (@avillamusic) on
A-Villa adds to the growing catalog of Chicago-based artists, which continue to vary every year. Since he came up in a different era, his approach to hip-hop and production somewhat differ from the new generation. “They’re young guys doing it,” Villagomez said. “You can’t knock the young guys for trying to get out of their environment and better themselves and their families.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=KeZEm9nGTpE
In his eyes, Villa knows that the entire “Chiraq” concept brings negativity to his city. The “trap-rap” being ushered in from budding MCs like Fredo Santana, Lil Durk, producer Young Chop, and Chief Keef casts a dark cloud over Chi-City. Among rhymes fueled with gestures of gun violence, gang-banging, and drug culture, Villa opts to focus on the positive perspective that not a lot of people consider.
“Essentially it’s a negative thing, the whole “Chiraq” concept and the marketing behind it. It’s all negative. There’s no putting a positive light on people getting killed everyday in the city. The good perspective is that they’re trying to tell a story, but they’re talking about it like they’re doing it now. It’s not like they’re rapping in past tense, like they used to do it, so there’s no positive message by the end of the song. But I understand what they’re doing and they’re getting bread for it. “
A Villa praises MCs like Vic Mensa and Chance The Rapper for dropping off positive messages in their music. Nevertheless, Villa continues to remain humble in his own lane and refuses to align himself with or partake in the “Chiraq” theory. From the beginning, the Latin producer only wanted to create his own legacy through his own work of art that represented what he’s about. With support from the hip-hop community and his international fan base, Villagomez seeks out to serve a bigger purpose in the rap game.
“I was just going to jump back into the corporate world and do me. But [then I saw] the success, and not even just critical success, but the way the music has been embraced. I hear it from cats, not just in Chicago and the Midwest, but all over the world, like almost daily, hit me up on social media and let me know they appreciate my music. I’m still making music though. I’m not retiring.”
Although his “Linear Notes” mark “the end” of his career, A-Villa is currently working on a new body of work as we speak. Unfortunately for fans, it won’t be a continuation of his debut album. Instead, his next project will be something new and challenging as far as what his listeners expect of him. He also has several singles and other placements lined up, which will drop before the year’s end. However, Villa asserts his upcoming project will still boast a considerable amount of features.
“It’s going to be a producer/artist album where I’m doing all the music for one particular artist. It’s going be like the Gangstarr deal. I’m the DJ Premier to the Guru, but from the Chicago perspective,” he added.
After five years in the game, Villa is used to people recognizing him in the street, especially while he’s with his daughter. Avalyn is pictured on the album cover of Carry On Tradition and makes her brief vocal debut at the end of the Rapsody and Guilty Simpson collaboration “Never Give You Up (One For Ava).” Now, whenever a fan comes up to him for an autograph or a photo, he humbly asks the fan to autograph something for him.
“I’m a fan of my fans and supporters. Whatever I can do to put a smile on their face, whether it’s through my music or an autograph and a picture, I do that.”