In this Forbes Talks interview, Forbes Reporter Zoya Hasan talks with Grammy-nominated Music Producer Tay Keith. Keith discusses his early days getting into music production, his rise to success working with major artists like Drake and Travis Scott, and his decision to launch his own record label Drumatized. Keith also delves into his efforts to give back to his hometown of Memphis through local community initiatives and programs.
00:00 - Intro: Meet Tay Keith
00:33 - Balancing Young Success with the Long Game
01:25 - How Tay Keith Broke Into the Industry
01:59 - The 2018 Breakthrough Year
02:59 - Getting the Call from Drake
03:43 - Miley Cyrus: The Most Surprising Collab
04:08 - Dealing with Doubt and Staying Focused
04:38 - Why It's Tougher to Break In Today
05:32 - How Social Media Changed the Game
06:40 - How Producers Really Make Money
07:25 - Why He Launched His Label, Dramatize
08:06 - Networking in the Industry (The Right Way)
09:11 - How to Break In Without Connections
09:56 - The Email That Taught Him a Lesson
10:45 - Marketing & Personal Branding for Artists
11:25 - What’s Next for Dramatize
12:10 - Tay Keith the Investor: Shadow Tequila & More
13:33 - Untitled: His New Music Startup
14:11 - Why Investing Beyond Music Matters
15:18 - Investing in Music Tech & AI
16:15 - His Take on AI Tools in Music
17:04 - Giving Back to Memphis
18:44 - What Inspires His Philanthropy
19:33 - “I Haven’t Had My ‘I Made It’ Moment Yet”
20:15 - Advice to His 18-Year-Old Self
21:01 - His Producer Influences Growing Up
22:26 - Being on the List of Greats
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00:00 - Intro: Meet Tay Keith
00:33 - Balancing Young Success with the Long Game
01:25 - How Tay Keith Broke Into the Industry
01:59 - The 2018 Breakthrough Year
02:59 - Getting the Call from Drake
03:43 - Miley Cyrus: The Most Surprising Collab
04:08 - Dealing with Doubt and Staying Focused
04:38 - Why It's Tougher to Break In Today
05:32 - How Social Media Changed the Game
06:40 - How Producers Really Make Money
07:25 - Why He Launched His Label, Dramatize
08:06 - Networking in the Industry (The Right Way)
09:11 - How to Break In Without Connections
09:56 - The Email That Taught Him a Lesson
10:45 - Marketing & Personal Branding for Artists
11:25 - What’s Next for Dramatize
12:10 - Tay Keith the Investor: Shadow Tequila & More
13:33 - Untitled: His New Music Startup
14:11 - Why Investing Beyond Music Matters
15:18 - Investing in Music Tech & AI
16:15 - His Take on AI Tools in Music
17:04 - Giving Back to Memphis
18:44 - What Inspires His Philanthropy
19:33 - “I Haven’t Had My ‘I Made It’ Moment Yet”
20:15 - Advice to His 18-Year-Old Self
21:01 - His Producer Influences Growing Up
22:26 - Being on the List of Greats
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
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More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi everyone, I'm Zoya Hassan and I'm here with Tay Keith, Grammy-nominated producer
00:08and founder of record label Drematized.
00:10Tay, thank you so much for joining us.
00:12Most definitely.
00:13I appreciate y'all having me.
00:16Of course.
00:17So you have built this brand, this sound, this legacy all before the age of 30.
00:23You've produced music for some of the biggest names of the generation from Travis Scott
00:28to Drake to Beyonce.
00:30Are you just getting started or are you living the dream?
00:34That's how I feel.
00:35I feel like, you know, when you have a lot of success so young, you gotta grow with it.
00:42So for me, I've been learning to grow with it.
00:45The older I've been getting, the more I've been adapting to like, hey, I'm just 28 doing
00:51it now.
00:53You know, where I'ma be at when I'm 38, where I'ma be at when I'm 48, you know, doing it.
00:58In that mindset, it's been helping me like, kind of like, think more in the future of
01:04where I'ma be at, like my career, what my goals gonna be then, so, you know.
01:11This is a competitive industry, you know, like there's so many creatives out there.
01:15There's so many people with so much talent who never make it.
01:19How did you get your foot in the door in the first place?
01:22What's the story?
01:25For me, it was just building with artists from the ground up and, you know, it was challenging
01:34for me to work with a lot of, like, try to get a lot of big, bigger placements when I
01:39was younger.
01:41So I took it as, you know, let me be strategic about working with upcoming artists and building
01:46with them, building, you know, the sound with them and relationships and just seeing where
01:50it go.
01:51And that's what kind of like was the beginning of my success story.
01:57So when did the big break come?
01:58What was the big break?
01:592018.
02:00Yeah, 2018.
02:01That's when, it was like 2017, 2018, but that's when, like, you know, the buzz grew beyond
02:13just Memphis between, like, me being a producer and, like, the artists that I was working
02:18with, them buzz, their buzz building beyond Memphis and, like, the states around Memphis,
02:29you know, Tennessee, Arizona, Alabama, Mississippi, started catching on to the wave and what we
02:35was doing.
02:36And, you know, it just kind of, like, caught on everywhere then.
02:40It went from just, like, the local area to, like, the whole South to, like, the music
02:47is going viral everywhere, so.
02:51Who was the first big artist that you started working with?
02:58Like, Drake was the first big artist that I started working with.
03:02How did you land that?
03:03Like, what's the story there?
03:05I mean, it was, um, Drake had reached out to me and Block Boy JB and we was, you know,
03:12just doing our thing and we ended up making Look Alive and it just took off.
03:17Yeah, that's a big one.
03:19That was a big, you know, a big record, like, and I eventually just, you know, kept working
03:26with Drake and also, like, other artists in Memphis around that same time.
03:33There was multiple records that I had that was, like, buzzing for real.
03:38Who was an artist you worked with that you were like, hold on, this is crazy?
03:43I think the biggest surprise to this day that I worked with was Miley Cyrus, because I just
03:51didn't see that coming, you know, from, you know what I'm saying?
03:56I didn't think I would actually work with her growing up, like, and then me actually
04:00having a record that, you know, with her.
04:03So that was pretty, that was pretty dope.
04:06Were there ever any moments of doubt?
04:08Yeah, it's moments of doubt, always.
04:11It's always moments of doubt, you know, but you just got to keep your head up, keep grinding,
04:15you know, stay, like, focused for real.
04:19A lot of times, you know, you get distracted by so much stuff in the music industry, outside
04:25personal things, you know, and it's just like, for me, it's like, I'm just, you know, staying
04:33focused, not getting distracted.
04:35Would you agree it's a tough industry to break into?
04:38Yeah, I think it got, actually, I feel like it got tougher.
04:42It got harder, you know, than when it was for me, like, I studied a game.
04:50So, you know, it was a different time.
04:52When I was able to get in the music industry, it was kind of like, streaming was kind of
04:57newer, you know, it was a little bit, the industry wasn't as saturated as it was, as
05:04it is now, you know, and social media was just different.
05:07So, you know, I think now it's a little bit different for, a little bit difficult for
05:11artists to break through.
05:12But, you know, it's still a lot of new artists that's been, you know, like, dominating their
05:18niche, like, in their own pocket.
05:21It don't have to be mainstream, you know, it don't have to be, you know.
05:25What do you think of what social media has done for the music industry?
05:30Do you see it positively?
05:32Man, it's just, it's a lot of ways to look at it, for real, you know.
05:38I think the main thing social media has made it like, kind of like, in a sense, music now
05:47has become a thing where it's, you don't have to be mainstream to be successful now.
05:56Like, social media made it that way now.
05:59Like, you can have your own following, your own fan base, and nobody would know who, you
06:04know, nobody around would know who you is, but you can have people all around the world
06:10who really dedicated to, you know, like, your fan base.
06:14So, I think that's cool, like, to see, like, a lot of artists that I work with now, they
06:19be having their own fan base and their own niche and they just, like, doing their thing,
06:24you know.
06:25When it comes to, like, making money being a producer, for you, do you get royalties
06:34off of these songs or is it more like you sell off your masters?
06:38What's your process?
06:40So, yeah, it's, you know, you just basically get money off of the songs, like, the royalties,
06:45the publishing off of it.
06:47I think majority of the producers, like, big producers, you know, get the money the same
06:54way, but, like, you know, it's producers who sell their masters and stuff too, but, you
07:00know, they sell their catalog.
07:02Okay, so you can do it both ways?
07:04Yeah, you can do it both ways, however you want to do it, you know, it's just whatever
07:07situation works best for you.
07:10And is it, because you have founded your own label now, but the majority of the music
07:15you produce so far has been outside your label, is that right?
07:19Correct.
07:20Yeah.
07:20Why did you then decide to launch Dramatize?
07:24Because I wanted to, I wanted to start a camp for producers, I was just influenced by, you
07:30know, you know, producers who was, like, I looked up to and they had their own camp going
07:38on, so I wanted to start my own with my producers and, you know, eventually just kept building
07:45with the producers that I had and, you know, building on top of that, like, getting them,
07:50helping them get placements and stuff and connecting them with artists and other producers
07:54and they just built from their own, like, their point on, like, just kept building,
07:58so.
07:58What advice would you give to people breaking into the music industry in terms of building
08:05their network?
08:06I think when you want to build your network, you're thinking of your relationships, right?
08:12So, you know, your relationships is like your peers, your friends, like, it ain't about
08:17being, like, being opportunist.
08:21You're not coming around trying to get placements with artists and, you know, you really just
08:29coming around to build with them, kick it, you know, have fun.
08:35Have fun, enjoy your time, you know, just actually being a real friend to somebody,
08:42you know, like, that's important when you're trying to build in the music industry.
08:46It ain't just about them opportunities where, hey, you can get in a studio with these artists
08:50and now, you know what I'm saying?
08:52You're not thinking how you, you know, you're thinking more on just trying to get a placement.
08:58The whole time, you could have had the relationship and that relationship could have got you,
09:01you know what I'm saying?
09:02Like, that's how you got to think.
09:03But how do you get your foot in the door in the first place?
09:05Like, say you have no friends in the industry, you have no connection in the industry.
09:09What do you do?
09:10You got to utilize social media.
09:12You got to, you got to send people loops.
09:16You got to send emails, beats.
09:18You got to flood, you know, the emails, you know, that was what I was having to do.
09:25And, you know, you got different platforms now where you're going to blow your beats
09:31even steal YouTube.
09:33People will see it.
09:36You know, people, you market it, right?
09:37You can get thousands and hundreds of thousands of views on your beat.
09:42Absolutely.
09:43Do you remember anybody kind of answering one of your cold emails or the cold messages
09:51that kind of changed the trajectory of your career?
09:55Was there anyone?
09:56There were so many people who was like, who was reaching out, reaching back out to me.
10:00It was just like, give me motivation.
10:02Like, I remember one time, like, Pee Wee Longway is one of my favorite rappers.
10:12He had emailed me back, like, send me four beats, don't send me snippets.
10:16So I learned from that, you know, because I ain't heard nothing else from him until I
10:20finally got to, you know, meet him a couple of years later.
10:23But I learned from, like, him telling me, like, don't send snippets, send four beats
10:29when you're gonna send beats, you know, make sure they're four beats.
10:34How do you, when it comes to, like, building an artist from the ground up,
10:38what would be your advice in terms of personal branding and marketing yourself as an artist?
10:45I think just utilizing social media, like, knowing how to, you know, what to post, when
10:51to post, how to post it, you know, that's important.
10:55It don't really take much now, like, to go viral.
10:59I don't think, you know, it's just how you go viral, like, and what sense, like,
11:05is it because you got good music, it's because of your looks, it's because of something you
11:10said, you know, it's just different things.
11:12But it's, you know, it's important to know what you want to be known for.
11:16What are you excited about this year with Dramatized and also just your own,
11:23also just personally, what are you excited about this year?
11:25So working on the Dramatized album, I'm excited about that.
11:30It's pretty, it's going to be pretty good.
11:32We just did the Memphis Grizzlies collab.
11:34That was dope.
11:36Yeah, with Dramatized, and we teamed up with 191 in Hennessey for that collab.
11:43So that was pretty dope.
11:45So a big part of being in the music industry, I think, has become also building your own
11:53brand, right?
11:54Being your own business.
11:56And you have done that very successfully.
11:59You have a great following on social media.
12:02You have also ventured out into investing.
12:06I saw that you had invested in a tequila brand.
12:10Yeah, so I invested into Shadow Tequila.
12:14So it's my business partner, Teddy, and his sister.
12:18Started it a couple of years ago when I just wanted to be a part of it and grow it.
12:25And it's been doing very well.
12:29I can't even think how many locations, but it's in a lot of them.
12:33So we're based in Tennessee.
12:37And it ships in, I want to say, 30 or 40 different states.
12:44Is that your first investment, or is this something you do frequently?
12:49Yeah, so for me, Shadow was just one of the investments that I did a couple years ago.
12:59But I invested in numerous companies, like one of them being Pathwater.
13:08It's a water company, and it's been doing pretty decent.
13:14Another one is Bounce.
13:17Bounce is a company that me and my business partner Cambrian invested in a couple years ago.
13:24It's doing good.
13:27One of the ones I'm excited about recently is Untitled.
13:32Okay, what's that?
13:33So Untitled is basically like an app.
13:35It's kind of like similar to Dropbox, but it's for music, like with peer-to-peer sharing.
13:43So it's like when you click on it, open it, when somebody sends you a link,
13:48tell you when they listened to it, they played it, they shared it, stuff like this.
13:54So that's been one that we've been extremely excited about.
13:59So we've been pushing for that.
14:04What got you into investing in companies?
14:08Why is that important to you?
14:10I think for me, it was just about knowing that you create the music and you have the
14:23resources to try different things, and why not?
14:27You know, you're blessed enough to be able to make a hit and be successful in music,
14:34but then it's like, what's outside of that?
14:37And for me, I was always in the mindset of like, music is my core, so how can I branch
14:43out and do other things?
14:44So investing was like real estate, stocks, you know, just a wide range of things, different
14:57things I was trying to do.
14:58And, you know, we just started doing startup investments.
15:04There's a lot of music startups out there these days.
15:07There's a lot of different things happening with different kinds of technology.
15:11Are you looking at those kinds of, even music and AI startups, are you looking at those
15:17companies at all?
15:18So the company that we invested in was SoundXYZ, which is basically the NFT marketplace.
15:32And you can buy with, you know, basically shares of a song which is sold as an NFT.
15:41So that was one that we kind of first started getting into the music side of the investments.
15:50So the other one is UDEO.
15:52So UDEO is, you know, it's an AI-generated program where you basically can create any
16:05type of song.
16:08Do you think these are like tools that benefit musicians?
16:13They're like needed?
16:14It's really, how I look at it, it's the same as it was with Auto-Tune, you know?
16:20I look at it the same thing, like people been using Auto-Tune for 20, over 20 years now,
16:27probably, you know?
16:28And I look at it like it's just something that if you use it, you know, in a way where
16:37it could be beneficial and it won't take away from your creative standpoint of music, then
16:44it can make, you know, some real, you can make some real hits out of it for real.
16:48Yeah.
16:48You grew up in Memphis.
16:53How has that impacted your work?
16:56And what are you, is there anything you're doing to kind of give back to where you came
17:02from, where your roots are?
17:04Yeah.
17:05So I've been doing quite a few different things in Memphis.
17:11I just teamed up with the city of Memphis with the mayor, Mayor Paul, and the Youth
17:18Services Department.
17:19And we basically had did a poetry contest and it was five winners.
17:24So I teamed up with them and I got them some nice shoes.
17:30They received, you know, some other gifts and they, like three of them got cash prizes
17:36too.
17:37So that was pretty cool.
17:38And I've been teaming up with the American Council Society.
17:43I'm working with them in Tennessee right now, but I plan on branching out and doing it,
17:53you know, in more states.
17:54But I've been doing quite a few different things like that.
17:59It's just been me giving back in a sense, like even me doing the wigs for women, things
18:08for like my mother.
18:12We're doing a dinner for Mother's Day and we, you know, we basically do the dinner for
18:19the women and we donate them wigs too.
18:22So that's been pretty cool.
18:24Like it's going to be the second year of that.
18:27So, you know, I've just been doing different things like that, like trying to, you know,
18:34build from that.
18:35So what kind of inspired you to start, you know, those projects to kind of give back?
18:44You just want to, you know, inspire people, give them the resources that, you know, other
18:54people didn't have or, you know, don't get to get.
19:00Like, so it was for me, I wanted to, you know, just show people like when it was when
19:09it was me being younger and I seen certain people do certain things for the community
19:15and how it affected me and made me want to inspire me to go harder or made me want to,
19:21you know, be more like, you know, motivated.
19:26So have you had your I made it moment yet?
19:33No, I think I'm just not really.
19:36I just, I just, I just, you know, keep working.
19:43That's all I feel like I can do.
19:46Because, you know, when you you hit these goals and you hit these and you get, you know,
19:52you reach certain expectations for yourself.
19:55You want to keep going.
19:56You want to keep, you know, climbing and keep elevating.
20:00So I think for me, my mindset has been keep going and keep reaching for higher things,
20:05you know.
20:06When you look back at all your achievements, if you could tell your 18 year old self one
20:13thing, what would it be?
20:15I think I would, I would definitely tell myself to, you know, spend more time with my family.
20:25Where does that come from?
20:26What makes you say that?
20:27You put so much hard work and effort into the music and you thinking like, you know,
20:34it's for your family and you, you know, you're doing it for your, you're putting on, right?
20:40And when you, when you look up, you put all this time and effort into your music and so
20:45much time is, you know, went past.
20:48So it's like, you know, you don't get that back.
20:51So that's what I would tell myself.
20:53Who are some of your influences and inspirations in the production world growing up?
20:59Um, from Memphis, you got Drummer Boy.
21:05Drummer Boy, he like, he really a pioneer, you know, he one of the pioneers in like hip
21:12hop in general, you know what I'm saying?
21:14He got some of the big, biggest hip hop records, especially like when I was growing up.
21:19So he from Memphis, you know, I just look up to him, idolize him and I, you know, just
21:24like kind of was influenced by him.
21:26And then you got like, um, DJ Squeaky, a big Memphis producer, like real Memphis legend.
21:36Um, you know, then like from the bigger producers, like the Pharrell's, you know, um,
21:49the Timberlands, the Metro's, you know, the Southside's, like all of those producers I
21:58was looking up to, like just me being young and high school, like middle school, high
22:04school, whatever the time it was, it's like, damn, that's cool.
22:08I want to do that, you know what I'm saying?
22:10How do you feel now that you are amongst those producers, like your name is amongst those
22:16names when I imagine there's an 18 year old out there today talking about who he's looking
22:23up to and your name might come up.
22:24How does that make you feel?
22:26It made me feel good.
22:27It made me feel accomplished because that was always the goal.
22:30That was always the dream to, you know, make sure I was one of those producers.
22:37I didn't know to what extent, but, you know, it's a blessing to be here right now.
22:40Like I did it.
22:42So it's an accomplishment for me to feel like, you know, I made it.
22:46Amazing.
22:47Well, thank you so much for joining us, Tay Keith.
22:50It's been a pleasure.
22:51Most definitely.
22:52And I appreciate y'all having me.