Rapper Tay B is chilling in Street Lord Radio’s studio space talking casually to friends Darylynn Mumphord and Street Lord Juan. The conversation is typical among those in the music business; who’s performing where and whose album is dropping when. Tay B is easily the coolest among the trio and does much more listening than talking. He’s a natural introvert but has an enormous amount of musical swagger. Over the last several years he’s gone from an artist with a slight buzz to one of Detroit’s hip-hop heavyweights.
“People don’t know how I really act. They really got this perception of me where they just think I’m mean,” the 26-year-old says with a laugh. “People just don’t know how I really act, that’s really the thing. I’m going to start letting people see that though. That's my fault. I don’t really put enough out there in the world to let them know how I really am. I’m the type of person where I gotta really fuck with you and know you for me to act like myself.”
Like other kids, hip-hop was the soundtrack to Tay B’s youth. He grew up listening to the latest hip-hop songs on the radio and he has memories of his dad regularly playing legendary Detroit group Rock Bottom around him. However his genesis getting behind the mic began when the emcee was 12 years old and his father surprised him with a random visit to a recording studio for the first time.
“I rapped off Lil Wayne’s ‘Stuntin’ Like My Daddy’ beat. I wrote my own verse and everything and did it in one take. I thought I was the man then,” he says with a slight chuckle.
Back then he was full of the preteen youthful bluster that comes with wanting to be a rap star. He chose “Lil Tay” as his rap moniker but his hip-hop dreams were put on hold right before they got started due to the incarceration of his father. This led to Tay B and his mother moving multiple times over a five-year time span. Tay B attended so many different high schools, he almost can’t remember them all, but he ended up graduating from Oak Park high school in 2013.
“He was in jail, but he’s the type of person where he was still trying to make his presence,” he says of his father. “He wasn’t physically here but I still talked to him every day. But as a kid, it still affects you, the time he went away, I was 13, you feel me? He went away for the majority and the most important years. And that’s like my best friend. I’m closer to him than anybody.”
A year after high school Tay B started carving out the time and space to curate the musical style and approach he wanted to take. Detroit hip-hop was revamping itself in 2014. Big Sean was two albums deep into his career and DeJ Loaf had just released “Try Me,” while groups like Team Eastside and Doughboyz Cashout had galvanized local fans.
“I always took it seriously, I always wrote music, all through high school,” he says. “It’s just like when you’re young, and you ain’t got that money like that — you really don’t have the means to go to the studio because it cost.”
As Tay B’s financial situation improved, so did his determination to make music. A perfectionist, Tay B spent three years working on his debut mixtape Minute After Midnight, which he released on his birthday Dec. 1, 2016.
“On the first one, it’s like through a period of time,” he says. “I be just trying to make sure the album flow, that’s what I’m big into, making sure people can just press play and that’s it rather than just skipping.”
His tendency to overanalyze his work is much more of an attribute than a fault. He puts expectations on himself that are bigger than the ones his peers place on him. The result so far has been a steady burn of music that’s consistent in quality and range.
“Honestly, I’m my biggest critic,” he says. “So like most of the time I think my shit weak. I don’t care if everybody around me thinks it’s hard; if I don’t feel it, I don’t feel it, you know what I’m saying? So that was really just me working hard to the point where now I believe that this shit sweet, then it’s time. Just before my last tape drop it took me two years.”
That next year Tay B followed it with his breakout single “Back to Back,” a bass-heavy melodic track produced by ITrez Beats in which Tay B and fellow emcee DMB DZ lyrically make their presence known:
“Young boss nigga I do boss shit/ You ain’t getting money you just talk shit huh/ You don’t wanna beef cause we chalk shit/ We don’t play hard cause we came up off soft shit huh…”
Tay B calls it his “first banger.” The song racked up over 5 million YouTube streams and pole-vaulted him from a newbie on the rise to an impactful player in Detroit’s hip-hop game. He followed the single up with another birthday release, 2017’s AFLN, which is considered his most notable album to date by fans and critics.
Unlike other artists Tay B incorporates multiple ways to write and record music, and doesn’t just depend on punching his lines in (which seems to be the favorite approach for newer emcees).
“I used to write, like my next album I might write it,” he says. “What I do is the first way, I listen to the beat, if I like the beat I get a cadence for the song. I mumble the cadence, then I try and hear what I’m trying to mumble. The song comes out like that. The other way is when I just punch it in.”
Tay B kept the same formula and in 2018 he dropped two albums: AFNC and Pioneer. He understands the mild audacity of calling himself a “pioneer” while still in his mid-20s but says he feels he’s leading the pack of the new artists who started when he did. So as Drake once famously sang, “I’m the rookie and the vet.”
“I just feel like I was one of the pioneers of this shit. It was like my feet in snow,” he says, adding, “I’m one of the pioneers for the young niggas, its different levels to it.”
That same year Tay B took a short left turn from some of his usual content and released the concept EP LL Cool Tay. The EP was full of flirty playeristic hip-hop tracks geared towards his women fans as Tay B channeled his inner LL Cool J (as the album title notes). Sonically and stylistically it’s Tay B’s most unique project as the production consists of a late-’90s R&B vibe throughout seven fluid tracks.
“That was my idea,” he says. “You know, that’s what Babyface Ray calls me. He calls me, ‘LL.’ So that’s like his name for me. So I make a lot of songs for the girls, so that’s my thing. So I was like I’m going to make a tape called LL Cool Tay and I’m going to rap about all player shit. I may drop another LL Cool Tay fa’ sho’.”
“Honestly, I’m my biggest critic ... most of the time I think my shit weak. I don’t care if everybody around me thinks it’s hard; if I don’t feel it, I don’t feel it, you know what I’m saying?”
tweet this
As Tay B’s momentum continued to grow, he caught the attention of industry exec Ervin “Bird” Gainer, co-founder of BirdVison Ent Label. The meeting resulted in Tay B signing a record deal with Columbia records in 2021.
“Roddy Rich, the guy he’s signed to is Bird, he linked me with [Columbia],” he says. “They had signed me and it was during the pandemic. But everything was kind of messed up. I’m kind of mad I even did it. But it worked out. I only did one song under them. I was supposed to give them three albums but I don’t owe them nothing.”
“Stashbox” was another check in the win column for Tay B. The Willa-A-Fool-produced track featured Tay B and Chicago superstar Lil Durk rapping over piano keys and a wild bass-heavy loop.
“You steady flexin’ 50K, that’s shit I laugh ’bout/ My opp got eighty-nine shells, I puff gas now,” he raps.
“I’m really cool with [Lil Durk] DJ, DJ Bandz. He really linked us up and we’ve been locked in from there,” he says.
However, things at Columbia were short lived. Co-head of Columbia Shawn “Tubby” Holiday decided to team up with father and son music execs Irving Azoff and Jeff Azoff to form Giant Music in 2021. By November of 2022 it was announced that Holiday was bringing Tay B with him over to Giant. Now at Giant, Tay B has a front-row seat to all the players on his team.
“With Giant, they’re about business,” he says. “They got the right people over there. … I got Lil Baby executive producing my next album. That’s like his first time ever doing it. That’s just my guy. He fucks with me. Me and him got a song called, ‘Rich All My Life’ and we just been locked in ever since.”
Tay B’s musical kinship with the Atlanta rapper was put on full display when Lil Baby brought to perform during his performance on Aug. 23 at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.
Tay B has learned a lot from his short time being a signed artist. He’s been able to see some of the slippery and deceptive parts within the record business and he gives a quick breakdown of what aspiring artists should look at before they sign deals with major labels.
“First of all, they not really believing in you,” he says. “They’re going to give you some money. They giving you some money just in case it do work. So when you get into a situation you gotta make sure it’s genuine and make sure they really, really believe in you. Make sure you go meet your team, every single person on your team, because they are the people that’s going to have to fight for you with these higher up people to get everything approved.”
In 2022 he also made his first acting debut in the movie Detroit Dreams, a film written and directed by native Detroiter and emcee Al Nuke. Tay B portrayed an aspiring rapper navigating his way through Detroit’s complicated hip-hop music scene. (Sound familiar?) The movie debuted to a sell-out crowd at the Garden Theatre in Detroit and has been a Tubi favorite since.
“It was nice,” he says. “I didn’t want to do it at first. How am I going to be in a movie about me being a rapper when I am a rapper? … But I ended up really liking it. I wanna do another movie, I hope [Al Nuke] comes out with a part two.”
Tay B dropped 4Eva In My Bag in 2022, and the growth was evident. He still feels much more authentic when he’s catering to the ladies with tracks like, “Wish I Never” and “Did It Again,” or when he’s using his creativity and lyrically savvy to boast and brag.
“We ain’t playin’ golf, but I just put a hole in one/ Last year, I spent damn near mil’ up in Golden Sun/ Huh, I’m the chosen one, wait, I’m the frozen onе,” he raps on the song “Up.”
Most recently he dropped a hot verse on Pretty Brayah’s “Tied”and his single “My Type” has reached a million views on YouTube.
“I’ve grown tremendously,” he says. “All aspects too. I’m smarter because I’ve made mistakes, too. I made mistakes with music and certain things that I didn’t like. So I just learned and continue to grow. I just feel like I got way more room to improve.”
For the last five years Detroit’s hip-hop scene has continued to rapidly evolve and demand national attention. Detroit has well over a dozen artists that are signed to major record labels or have music distribution deals. Tay B feels because his accession started during this new wave, he didn’t have to struggle as hard as the previous generation to get his music known. “By the time I really started buzzing the city was getting noticed a little bit,” he says, adding, “so it really wasn’t super hard.”
Tay B is both appreciative of the short term success but is also making it a point to enjoy his moment in the limelight.
“It’s like Chicago done had it, Atlanta done had it for a long time, this Detroit turn,” he says. “People really fuck with Detroit music everywhere in the United States, in the world. It’s crazy. We literally getting a million views in a couple of weeks off videos. It used to take me so long to get a million views now we getting them like its nothing.”
By all accounts there is just as much camaraderie as competition within today’s Detroit hip-hop arena. Tay B isn’t one to go on a tangent about who he’s better than. However, when the topic switches to basketball, he isn’t so humble. Fellow emcees Sada Baby, Skilla Baby, and Baby Money have voiced and showed their prowess on the hardwood via social media, but Tay B thinks he has the upper hand on all of them.
“See, I don’t wanna keep doing my boys like that,” he says, boasting with equal amounts of humor and confidence. “I’m the best shooter, I can say that. I don’t wanna keep throwing that out there that I beat Skilla and Baby Money for $10,000. I don’t wanna keep saying it. But they got game though.”
All jokes aside, Tay B, Skilla Baby, and Baby Money have real life brotherhood. He says all three talk and FaceTime regularly and feature on each other’s songs. It’s common to see all three sharing the stage, and even a possible collab project has been discussed.
Tay B’s father has also since been out of jail for several years now and they continue to be closer than ever. For someone like Tay B, who keeps his circle of friends tight, his relationship with his father has been a critical part of his hip-hop career’s success and his growth as a man.
“He supports me fully,” he says, shaking his head smiling. “He believes in me more than I believe in myself. It’s like the pedestal he puts me on is crazy. It’s like I’m better than everybody in the world except for Tupac.”
Tay B has used the relationship between him and his father as a bit of a template when it comes to him and his 3-year-old son. Outside of his music, fatherhood is his main priority, he says.
“This is the way I eat, so if I ain’t eating then how are we gonna live a good life?” he says. “I really go hard so I can give him the best life legally.”
Subscribe to Metro Times newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
