COVER
T a y K e i t h
Keith Town
By Sophie Cino
Publishing date: Dec 21, 2023
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In the ever-evolving landscape of the music industry, primarily hip-hop, Tay Keith has managed to become more relevant each and every year. With the trajectory of success for producers can be as diverse as the beats they create, Tay Keith embarked on his career at the young age of 14 and has contributed to the transformative waves of the industry. We dove into his remarkable career thus far, from the mixtape era to the streaming-dominated present, highlighting the pivotal moments that have shaped his evolution.
He candidly shares insights into his early days, where passion trumped profit, to his recent Grammy nomination and achievements also touching upon the crucial influence that getting an education played in his life. We explore his commitment to education as a first-generation post-secondary student, and the impact he hopes to make on aspiring musicians and creators. He shares his thoughts on the collaborative process, his signature sound, and the importance of adapting to diverse genres.
Beyond the music, Tay Keith expands on his entrepreneurial spirit. Tay reflects on the factors that guide his investment decisions, emphasizing the importance of personal connections and shared vision with founders. He shares insights on financial responsibility, the importance of thinking innovatively about investments and what watch you shouldn’t buy once you get your first paycheck.
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In the ever-evolving landscape of the music industry, primarily hip-hop, Tay Keith has managed to become more relevant each and every year. With the trajectory of success for producers can be as diverse as the beats they create, Tay Keith embarked on his career at the young age of 14 and has contributed to the transformative waves of the industry. We dove into his remarkable career thus far, from the mixtape era to the streaming-dominated present, highlighting the pivotal moments that have shaped his evolution.
He candidly shares insights into his early days, where passion trumped profit, to his recent Grammy nomination and achievements also touching upon the crucial influence that getting an education played in his life. We explore his commitment to education as a first-generation post-secondary student, and the impact he hopes to make on aspiring musicians and creators. He shares his thoughts on the collaborative process, his signature sound, and the importance of adapting to diverse genres.
Beyond the music, Tay Keith expands on his entrepreneurial spirit. Tay reflects on the factors that guide his investment decisions, emphasizing the importance of personal connections and shared vision with founders. He shares insights on financial responsibility, the importance of thinking innovatively about investments and what watch you shouldn’t buy once you get your first paycheck.
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Reflecting on the evolution of his career thus far.
Well, as far as the evolution of music when I started producing, it was the mixtape era. So it wasn’t even about the money, which was a good thing for me because it wasn’t too lucrative back then for hip-hop music like the mixtape era. There were a lot of underground artists uploading on these websites. So it wasn’t necessarily that much money unless you were a mainstream artist. So I was trying to work with a lot of upcoming artists. I wasn’t doing it for the money. I was doing it for it because I love doing it. For the credibility to get to work with the other artists. So from then to now, it’s a completely different industry, it’s more about the streams and what you could sell and the first-week sales and stuff. Of course, it has always been competitive, now I guess the focus is to achieve those achievements, accomplishments.
On being a Multi-Grammy nominated producer and 2023 BMI’s Producer of The Year.
It feels good. I got my first Grammy nomination in 2018. So fast forward to now, It feels good to know that I’ve worked hard persistently to get another nomination.
I feel like it’s kind of surreal at this point. I feel like I worked hard to get to where I’m at, and just to keep achieving it is, like, still a wow factor to me. I didn’t expect it to be this long of a journey for me to continue to put out hits. So now, I think, what this is doing for me is motivating me to get to the next level as far as my executive position in the future, and the artists that I’m developing and producers that I have developed and seeing the outcome of that. But I feel like all of what I’m projecting to do for myself has come from me putting up so many records over the past years.
I guess it was just more of me grinding so hard to get to my end goal and it just aligned up to that moment. Fast forward to now. I feel like those moments just never get old even now to my new hits and what I’ve been working on now and what I will continue to work on, it won’t be my last number one. So, I just always get surprised and it is always least suspected.
The significance of receiving an honorary Professor role and multi-year music education partnership at his alma mater, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU).
When I was in school, I had a hard time, I struggled throughout college. I had to have a lot of help from my peers and just try to stay afloat and overcome the adversity at the university. I understand the importance of getting my education being first generation, and I just wanted to be at that point where I can motivate the students who came behind me to do the same thing. Many students are at MTSU because of me. I just want to motivate them and show them it’s possible even when you don’t get a candidacy or even when you don’t perform as you should in college, it’s still a way to be successful in the music industry.
The process of creating a song from scratch.
Producers are considered songwriters. I think a lot of people were kind of confused by the fact that being a producer is also considered being a songwriter. So, for me producing it kind of starts with me, I guess feeling what type of vibe and energy I’m in. A lot of the time I work at home in my own space. Sometimes I like to work around people. I go to Soho house and bring my laptop. Cook up. L A, go to Soho warehouse downtown. Look at the views of LA cook up if I’m at the studio and, in Nashville, we got the studio headquarters, Drumatized Studios. I cook up here where I had the loudspeakers So I think I just, it just depends on what type of vibe and where my environment is for me to feel the need to work that gets on like songs and produce song work
On his signature sound.
I’m heavily influenced by the Memphis sound. So, of course, that’s affecting me in my music, the 808s, people know me for my 808s being a particular way and it’s not crazy. I just feel like that’s kind of like my signature and of course, like my rising, a lot of people know me for my rising and my beats, it’s like the sound that I use, not my tag but my rising, I use that a lot.
When it’s the right time to use his tag.
I guess you can’t use the tag with everything, you gotta make sense, you gotta be appropriate. People come to certain producers for certain sounds. So I feel like I always have to implement the elements of my sounds and, and whatever genre that I’m in. So it just depends on the circumstances.
It just depends on what artist I’m working with. So if I’m working with an artist who wants this particular type of sound and we are in the studio, I try to kinda like play some beats of what I might think they would like, if not, then I cook up from scratch or even bring in their go-to producers and collaborate with them. I feel like that’s a smart way of working too.
On signing Sexyy Red.
For me as a producer, I feel like what’s keeping me relevant is [signing] a new artist, doing the whole Sexxy Red thing. There was a very smart move made as far as staying relevant because I brought my sound to somebody fresh and new and made it fresh and new.
I was inspired by Sexyy Red for a while. I’ve been watching the process of her work, and I was just on YouTube looking her up all the time seeing the growth. See, I just really watched the numbers just do what they do, and then eventually see her working with Wicked fans from Memphis, a guy who’s a very important factor in the Memphis new age growth. So, shout out to Wicked fans. He was doing some for Sexyy, and I was like, you know what, I have been watching her, let me go on, reach out. So I reached out to her. We had started chopping it up. We eventually worked together a few months later after talking and we did Pound Town. That was the first time we did, it was a hit. So the first time that we did was a hit. So that’s how they went about, and we just built our friendship from there.
Speaking from somebody who had to overcome a lot of adversity and just like the lack of motivation around me, I just had to figure out how to do it myself. And when I look back, I always realize that I just had so much confidence in achieving certain things that nobody else could have told me anything different.
The importance of self-confidence.
Always be yourself, and have confidence. If you don’t have confidence in anything, have confidence in being yourself. And that means if you want to make a specific type of music, have confidence in it. If you want to be, whatever you want to be like, it can be music, it can be entertainment, it can be art, it can be whatever you want to do, even outside, you can be a
doctor, a lawyer, whatever, just have the confidence in doing. Because if you don’t have the confidence to do it, nobody else will. Speaking from somebody who had to overcome a lot of adversity and just like the lack of motivation around me, I just had to figure out how to do it myself. And when I look back, I always realize that I just had so much confidence in achieving certain things that nobody else could have told me anything different. So I feel like that was always an important factor, just having that go-getter mindset, understanding the points of just being confident in what you do, confident in the drive.
On reshaping the music industry with Sound XYZ.
I’m an investor in the company, so to give you a kind of understanding of how it goes, people buy a portion of whatever you offer them in the song. So if you want to offer them a small portion, then if they sell that to how many shares you want to, that’s what they will own of the song. So I think the important thing is connecting the web’s three cryptocurrencies, t-space into the art creation, music and just understanding the points of what the world is coming to. So I think Sound XYZ is super innovative and ahead of the curve when it comes to artists having ownership and being able to sell their art, music, or whatever you want to call it for a profit and still have the ownership in it too.
On artists owning their own music.
100%, as ownership is becoming more of a thing because of the move of social media, how it’s, how it’s becoming easier to be a sensation almost overnight. I think the important thing is having the advantage of owning your music where you can be able to release it when you want to have creative control over it. I think that’s the most important thing cause I feel like back, back in the day, a lot of people were doing the deals for the labels to kinda like push their music to the next level, but not saying the labels don’t do it now, it’s just kind of easier for artists to do it on the internet.
Owning a hip-hop studio in Nashville.
Being in the position I am as a big hip hop producer and me being black in the country space is almost unheard of. So trying to connect the dots to bridge the gap is something that’s my goal, and hopefully, we see what the outcome could be in the future.
On investing in businesses beyond music.
I think the most important thing for me is the relationship with the actual owners and the founders. Just like this new company that I’m invested in called Sci-Fi Foods. Just to be able to talk to the founder on a personal level as far as his vision and my vision and the information that could be given and just having very much common ground is what motivates me to invest. Even with Path water, shadowTequila. It’s a colleague of mine that he and his sister decided to start this and just to have a relationship like that was enough for me to invest. For me to know that he’s doing what he’s doing, educating me also and me being understanding where the goal is is another thing. So I feel like just to have that type of relationship and also the end goals, but kind of like enough for me to feel comfortable enough to invest in a company I believe in.
Advice to those looking to diversify their investments.
As far as getting into different things like real estate stocks and NFTS and all that, I would say, don’t blow your advance on jewelry. If you’re gonna blow your advance on something make sure you get your house, buy your mama a house, and pay it off, if you can’t pay it off, then buy yourself a couple of smaller properties, rent them out, or whatnot and make some type of income. Real estate is kind of like the easiest route to go when you have some money that you can see a return on in a few years. So I feel like a lot of people make the mistake of like, oh, ok, I’m gonna rent a spot, I’m gonna get a condo cool without actually owning it. It was one of the best things that I have done in my career as far as real estate and stuff. So I would consider that when you do get enough money instead of just going to buy cars and stuff like that. Just think more innovative when it comes to investments; stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, life insurance policies, all those things are important factors that you could invest in over time to just add to your portfolio. I’m not telling anybody to not buy jewelry, you can just start with smaller jewelry. Start with smaller pieces of jewelry, and then build your way up. If you’re gonna do that, also get a plain Jane watch. They keep value, they hold value, and they build up. High-end watches like Rolex, Audemars, and things like that. So buy those plain Jane watches, and hold on to them, they build value.
Photographer: 36Neex
