Tay Keith Dead At Age 29

Tay Keith, one of the most successful young hip-hop producers of the last decade, has died at the age of 29, WSMV4 TV in Nashville reports. The Memphis native is best known for producing on tracks like Travis Scott’s chart-topping “4X4” and “Sicko Mode,” Drake’s “Family Matters,” Eminem’s “Not Alike,” and BlocBoy JB’s “Look Alive,” ft. Drake.

Keith’s music was instantly recognizable by his producer tag—“Tay Keith, fuck these niggas up!”—and by the attention to detail he’d been honing since he was in middle school.

“My mom was married and her husband [at the time] was DJing,” Keith told Music Row, in 2024, explaining how he got started. “That’s what exposed me to it. I went to my dad’s house on the weekends, and my brothers and the neighbors would record music on the computer. I said, ‘One day I’m going to get me a mic and do this shit.’ And that’s what I did.”

In his early years, Keith made a name by producing for Memphis artists like Yo Gotti, Blac Youngsta, and Moneybagg Yo. His breakthrough came via 2018’s “Look Alive,” which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Keith broke down his beat-making process in an episode of Genius’s Deconstructed.

In 2023, Keith scored a hit with Sexyy Red’s 2023’s track “Pound Town,” which spawned a remix featuring Nicki Minaj.

That same year, Keith opened the first-ever Black-owned hip-hop studio in Nashville, and as he told Music Row, he dreamed of one day producing a No. 1 country hit.

“I’ve been working with a lot of different country artists,” he said. “Reyna Roberts and I have a lot of songs together. I’ve worked with Kane Brown. Ernest was one of the first people in Nashville to embrace me as a Black hip-hop producer, and Bailey Zimmerman has been good friend to me.”