Key Points
- Tay Keith, born Brytavious Chambers, died June 18 at age 29
- He was found in his Nashville apartment during a police welfare check
- Metro Nashville Police say no foul play is suspected; cause is pending
- He produced "Sicko Mode," "Look Alive," "Nonstop," and "Not Alike"
Tay Keith, the Memphis producer whose drums scored a decade of hip-hop's biggest records, was found dead in his Nashville apartment on Thursday, June 18. He was 29. The Metro Nashville Police Department, which discovered him during a welfare check, said no foul play is suspected and that the cause of death is pending an autopsy.
The sound
Born Brytavious Chambers, Tay Keith turned a Memphis upbringing into one of the most recognizable sonic signatures of his generation. His breakout was BlocBoy JB and Drake's "Look Alive" in 2018, landed when he was 21; months later came Travis Scott's "Sicko Mode," which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Song. The producer tag that opened those tracks — "Tay Keith, f*** these —" — became a stamp of quality, the kind of audio watermark that told you a hit was coming before the first verse.
The catalog
The run was relentless. He co-produced Drake's "Nonstop," Eminem's "Not Alike" from Kamikaze, and Beyoncé's "Before I Let Go" from Homecoming, and more recently executive-produced Sexyy Red's 2024 album. His range — trap menace, festival scale, and a deep grounding in Memphis crunk — made him one of the few producers equally at home behind a rap titan and a pop institution. "I was born into this and raised in this," he once said of his hometown. "Memphis music is all I listened to and all my family listened to."
The read
Producers rarely become household names, but Tay Keith was an exception — a beatmaker whose tag was as famous as the rappers he served, who turned the credit line into a brand. He was 29, in the middle of a career that had already reshaped the sound of mainstream rap, with collaborators across the genre who treated his name as shorthand for a guaranteed knock. The hip-hop world that mourned him on Thursday was the same one he spent a decade scoring. The records will keep playing; the catalog is the kind that outlasts the man who made it.
Source: Rolling Stone, Variety
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