Tay Beats: The big reveal
Do you want to see Tay Beats naked?
Of course you do! On the cusp of moving to Atlanta, the audio engineer opened up about his life and career, and revealed all.
When I interviewed Tay Beats about his “Engineer of the Year” recognition at the Kentucky Urban Entertainment Awards this year, he was by far the realest of anyone I interviewed for that article. Being authentic and leaving ego at the door is a sign of true confidence.
When we spoke again last week, he was totally open and real once again. I asked him the secret to his confidence, and he gave me an answer I could never have expected. First, he acknowledged that he does possess a true foundation of confidence, and he didn’t say it in the cocky way that insecure people do. Second, he immediately pointed to the moment – the tipping point – when he found that confidence.
When he was barely an adult, he co-starred in Playboy Triple Play Season 2, Episode 5.
“So me and the person I was with, we used to do webcams together. And keep in mind this was like, kind of a bad period in my life. We was making some decent money on the webcams. I was unemployed, so I was on Craigslist, always looking for jobs and little side gigs,” he remembers. “One day ran across an ad for Playboy on Craigslist, and I applied. They called us literally the next day, and we got an interview. Two months later they flew us out to Vegas for a week to film.”
Tay Beats was on set being filmed having sex, and suddenly it hit him. He and his partner were not alone.
“That one moment changed my life.”
“There was a whole set there. You got two camera people. You got the lighting people, the sound guy, director, producer, and then in the back room there's like 20 other people just watching on screens. Me and the girl that I was with, we was doing it or whatever, and I forgot that anybody was even in the room. And then the director had said something to me like, ‘Scoot over.’ And I looked over, I was like, ‘What?’ And then I got soft. The girl was like, ‘Just keep going. Act like it didn't happen. Just keep going. Fake it.’”
This is a fresh take on fake-it-til-you-make-it.
“And then I was right back in action. Ever since that one little moment right there, I was like, hold on, why am I tripping? Like, wow, I've been so scared of everything. That one moment changed my life. Like seriously. And ever since then I've been like, if you want to do something, go for it.”
Tay Beats has so many early reference points that have guided him along the way. He loved literature and history in middle school. He took to Confusious and committed many of his sayings to memory. The stories of the past inspired him, as well as the stories of now. He joined the journalism team in high school and got comfortable telling stories from behind the camera.
On to the next
Storytelling is still his forté, and right now he’s getting ready to write a new chapter of his own story. The much-loved audio engineer is leaving Lousiville for Atlanta in January.
“This is my leap of faith right now.”
The music manager Jon Woo — whose claim to management fame rests on convincing a videographer to make Louisville artist Bblasian’s video for Change for free, which built on the existing success of that breakout song — encouraged Tay Beats to take a risk and try Atlanta.
“I was telling him I was gonna save up a whole lot of money and go out there so I can be comfortable. And he was like, ‘Fuck comfortability shit.’ He's like, ‘Go out there and grind.’ So my first month or two I'm gonna just be staying in Airbnbs on like weekly stays. Like, this is my leap of faith right now.”
The artist’s perspective
Because of his style in the studio, Tay Beats is a magnet for artists like Moneymade Jr., who might have to take some trips to Atlanta to keep recording with him, although Tay Beats does plan to come home to Lousiville from time to time to keep supporting the artists he has worked with.
I first met Moneymade at a birthday dinner for a guy named Mosaa Alyasseri in Louisville a year and a half ago. Moneymade was rapping then, but as of late he has embraced Latin music and is loving the response. He’s getting instant accolades, so much so that he has deleted all his English-language music from the streaming platforms. He told me about meeting Tay Beats at 400 Recording back in 2019.
“I used to record at Out the Box all the time, and I hadn’t been to 400. But I went to 400 with my friend Keno one night, and he was recording an R&B song with Tay,” he remembered. “I liked the way he was mixing the song while they recorded and just making Keno’s voice sound fire. So I asked him for his number and I locked in with him. It was around Christmas time. Right after that I recorded Moving Fast with him. It’s one of my top three songs.”
“You almost gotta be psychic as an engineer. You gotta know this person.”
Tay Beats knows he brings something special to the studio.
“As engineers, we definitely have to put our emotions and feelings into it and pay attention to what these artists is talking about and what they're going through to get these hit songs and hit records. Cause if you're sitting there bullshitting the artist, they're not gonna really feel themselves and be comfortable in the booth,” he said. “You almost gotta be psychic as an engineer. You gotta know this person.”
The mentor’s perspective
Tay Beats has been engineering since he was 18. He went to Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida, and mapped out his life. Always a planner, he was disappointed to fall off track due to relationships and finances. An important mentor in his life — one whom he doesn’t name because he’s very well-known and Tay Beats doesn’t name drop — started steering him early.
“When I was doing porn, he was like, ‘I had a friend that was doing that and she ended up going down a real bad, dark road, so please stop doing that.’ He started getting me film gigs, like being a PA and all that on big films. He helped me get outta that gutter right there.”
Another mentor he credits is Hugo Diaz of Huge Music Studio.
Hugo, a Miami native of Chilean descent, was a producer for Pitbull before he moved up north to Indiana, across the bridge from Louisville. He was flattered to hear that Tay Beats considers him a source of wisdom.
“Six or eight months ago, I made an Instagram post cause we need more staff at our studio. He responded, and I set up a meeting. I'm big on connecting with people based on energy, and I felt his energy right away. I was like, okay. He seems like a genuinely good person and good dude,” said Hugo. “He's got a good ear, a good pulse on the music, and the sound people are looking for. He understands the technicalities of mixing and how studios actually work, which is rare. Some people go to school to get an engineering degree but still don't have an ear for music. These kinds of things you can't be taught.”
Hugo’s relationships in the music world extend past simply business. “I think of these young guys as little brothers. I talk to them about financial stability and things like that.”
At age 50, this makes perfect sense, and Tay Beats has been picking up what he’s putting down.
What’s in Atlanta?
Moving to Atlanta is not just about changing locations or getting a fresh start. Tay Beats has forged relationships with several studios, including Tree Sound and Hot Beats, and is looking forward to the doors that will open there.
“We got the legendary Hot Beats studio. It's gonna be like a blessing for me working there. That's where KY Engineering and Seth Firkins and a whole bunch of other big engineers came up,” he said. “There’s also Super Sound, T.I.’s studio. The dope thing about me working in a lot of different studios is that there's a lot of different types of artists. There's artists who sound good at one studio but not another one. In Louisville, some sound good at 400, some at Evo, some at Huge. In Atlanta, I’m looking for a huge mic selection and a lot of outboard gear, like different preamps and compressors.”
Amidst all the excitement and opportunity, there is a hard part. Tay Beats’ ever-present son Blu will be living in Louisville, and will not be his constant companion at the studios while he’s working.
“My goal is to spend about three months out there and get an apartment ready and then eventually bring him out. But even then, he's not gonna stay with me out there. He's gonna be going back and forth pretty much.”
To stomach this, the engineer reminds himself, “I’m 29. I’ve got to do this. It’s now or never.”
