Tay Keith

“I want people to see me as the entrepreneur, the boss, the public figure, the person who motivates.”

“When I first started, all I had was the laptop and some cheap headphones. I ain't have no speakers. You know, no Rocket speakers or no MPC. No keyboard, none of that. It just was the laptop and the headphones. Going from there, it just teaches you a lot.”

“I get advice from all the producers who have come out of Memphis. They just give me advice on the business side, because that's most important besides the actual music. Just staying at a point I know I can't mess myself up. I just got to be put up on game about it. Drumma Boy and Memphis Track Boy taught me a lot.”

“I feel like artists like Three 6 Mafia and 8 Ball and MJG reached a point in their careers where they were hot and underground.”

“Some of the artists I've been working with it's been just work, you know what I'm saying? But in the industry I feel like the relationship is stronger than the work sometimes.”

“I used to put like, 'Yo Gotti type beats,' 'Future type beats' on YouTube. And uhh, I started getting paid off YouTube. Like YouTube started giving me Google AdSense checks.”

“Yo Gotti had some influence on me for sure. I would say Three 6 Mafia, too.”

“I grew up in the area where we had Three 6 Mafia, and Playa Fly, and 8Ball & MJG. My parents and my family used to listen to it. I learned from them there, and got more into it - listening to the beat of songs, and just learning more about music.”

“You know, as I'm progressing with my sound, I just realize when you got a simple sound with crazy percussion in the beats, it makes it. It kinda shapes my sound when it comes to what makes a Tay Keith beat.”

“When I hit 50, I want to go be a professor.”

“It just so happened that the sound I've developed has the Memphis origins to it that made Drake wanted to work with it.”

“Most people when they rap usually have their homies in the studio who rap with 'em, but they homies don't usually be producers.”

“Yeah, I got a lot of inspiration from Three 6 as far as my sound.”

“Before I got my big hit, I was selling beats for $500.”

“Man, Dr. Dre just inspired me so much. Just him personally, outside of music, too. You know, him doing the whole Beats thing... People like him, they set the bar high for me to set the bar even higher, you know? It's more than just music when it comes to building a foundation and building your empire.”

“I always knew music was gonna be my outlet, I just didn't know when, or how it was gonna happen.”

“Whatever you make from music, you invest that right back into what you want to get into in life.”

“I actually got to work with TM88. He was one of my big influences as far as producing. It was pretty cool. I had met him in California at the crib and it was one of those random meet-ups and we got to working from that point on.”