It's the music story of the week: AI artist Breaking  Rust’s songs “Walk My Walk” and “Livin’ on  Borrowed  Time” have hit No. 2 and No. 3 respectively on Spotify’s Global Viral chart after a lightning-fast ascent. “Walk My Walk” has also shaken up the country music world, reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Country  Digital  Song  Sales chart — the first time an AI song has topped a country chart. Breaking Rust’s songs feature R&B-influenced, Chris Stapleton-style vocals with minimal orchestration and heavy, hand-clapping beats. Speaking to Newsweek, a professor of music technology at Indiana University called the tracks “obviously the product of AI.”

No one associated with Breaking Rust has claimed credit, and the only human-sounding name listed—a songwriting credit for Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor—has zero social media or public presence. Aubierre Taylor is also listed as the songwriter for an AI artist called Defbeatsai, one of many x-rated, AI-generated joke country artists who have taken over the internet this year.

But Stems has uncovered the first person with a documented link to the AI music maker. On one of Defbeatsai’s Instagram accounts, the link-in-bio page includes a contact email for an obscure AI music app called Echo: AI Music Generator; it also links to the app, with the message that you can “make your own hit country song.” The developer of the app is listed as Abraham Abushmais.

Abraham Abushmais is an Atlanta-based country and hip-hop songwriter and producer who has also worked in music promotion and social media marketing. He co-wrote two tracks (“HeadNod,” “CountryTime”) on country artist Blanco Brown’s 2019 debut album Honeysuckle & Lightning Bugs; and has a sprinkling of credits on music by independent Atlanta rap artists from the late 2010s.

His LinkedIn says that Abushmais has also worked for a music marketing company called Organic Music Marketing, a playlist promotion company co-owned by rapper Waka Flocka Flame. On his LinkedIn, Abushmais describes himself as a “personal brand strategist” who has “worn a lot of hats—artist, Billboard‑charting producer, Twitch‑partnered streamer” and now helps “creators and brands grow across social platforms.”

We reached out to Abushmais via email, LinkedIn, and Facebook over two days for comment but got no response.

The nature of Abushmais’ link to Breaking Rust isn’t clear; it could be a partnership, a deal to send traffic to his music app or other connection. But the circumstantial case is there that Abushmais could be Taylor: Abushmais’ experience in country and hip-hop aligns with the musical influences on Breaking Rust and Defbeatsai. His background in music promotion as well as his AI and creator-marketing experience would all serve him well if he were distributing AI music. You could even speculate that “Aubierre” is play on “Abraham,” or on Abushmais’ listed nickname on his Facebook page: “AB.”

Then there’s most recent message on Abushmais’s Facebook page. On October 29, around the same time that Breaking Rust’s songs were taking off on streaming services, Abushmais posted the following: “Pretend long enough at anything, and [the] difference between real or fake stops mattering.”