Producer Tay Keith Dies at 29

In recent months, he had worked on albums from Key Glock, Megan Thee Stallion, Offset, and Westside Gunn, among others. In recent months, he had worked on albums from Key Glock, Megan Thee Stallion, Offset, and Westside Gunn, among others. in South Memphis, Chambers grew up listening to local rap royalty like Three 6 Mafia, Playa Fly, and 8Ball & MJG with his family. “I always knew music was gonna be my outlet,” he told the Fader in 2018. “I just didn’t know when, or how it was gonna happen.” That answer arrived in his early teens, when Chambers first began recording music—equipped with just a mic, his computer, and a piano—and releasing it on DatPiff and YouTube. It was also around this time that he met the rapper BlocBoy JB, who would go on to become one of his closest collaborators.

After people began offering to pay for the beats he uploaded online, Chambers went all in on producing, and eventually counted Drumma Boy and Memphis Track Boy as early mentors. Although his earliest credits date back to 2012, he broke out properly in 2015 after producing Black Youngsta’s mixtape Fuck Everybody. He released his debut solo mixtape, Foolhardy, in 2018, and his sole studio album, Fxck the Cash Up with Fast Cash Boyz, in 2020. In more recent years, he had worked on albums from Key Glock, Megan Thee Stallion, Offset, and Westside Gunn, among others.

Chambers worked consistently with some of the most recognizable names in mainstream rap, but he never shied from investing in rising, left-of-center talent. “Pound Town,” his 2023 track with Sexyy Red, became her breakout single and foregrounded one of the strongest mixtapes of the year, Hood’s Hottest Princess. But as Chambers explained to Billboard in 2024, most people treated the uproarious track as a joke when it first came out. “People were trolling the shit out of me,” he said. “It wasn’t much good feedback. It was coming from even people around me, ‘What you doing?’ I saw the potential. That’s as simple as it was, me believing in her.”

Since news broke of Chambers’ passing, multiple other musicians have shared public tributes to his life and legacy. “Damn Cuz You Just Hurt Me Bad” BlocBoy JB said in an Instagram story, alongside a photo of the pair. “We talked everyday.” Fellow Memphis producer Hitkidd also expressed disbelief on Instagram, writing: “I ain’t even got the words, we been doing this since 2010.”