Tay Keith Quotes

I'm a Southern guy, so Jeezy, T.I., and Outkast are always playing on my iPod.

Atlanta's my musical home. It really was the place where I really came alive.

Yeah, I like Three Six Mafia and stuff like that.

I feel like artists like Three 6 Mafia and 8 Ball and MJG reached a point in their careers where they were hot and underground.

Yo Gotti had some influence on me for sure. I would say Three 6 Mafia, too.

I started producing in California, and they called it mob music. When I moved to Atlanta, the sound was different. People in Atlanta didn't like to rap over West Coast beats. So I had to make adjustments to what was going on in the South.

We grew up listening to music like that: we grew up on the snap music, grew up off the trap music, grew up on all the South sound.

Yeah, I got a lot of inspiration from Three 6 as far as my sound.

I'm listening to early Cash Money, I'm listening to Juvenile, I'm listening to Waka Flocka, I'm listening to Lil B, I'm listening to Brandy, Kanye - that's my home playlist.

Oh man, I love what the South brings as far as the soul, and I really have noticed from even the early days of listening to OutKast and Goodie Mob that Atlanta and the South has a diverse sound to it. You have bounce music. You have soulful musicians. You have artists with vocals who try to do different things.

I listen to some Kevin Gates, Rick Ross, Fabolous.

It doesn't really seem any different anywhere. I'd say it seems like we're biggest in Australia. It's just that we've always been this underground band and for some reason in the last month has been starting to go overground.

Crunk music is the music of the South, it pervades every club and nightclub not only in America, but all over the world.

I grew up on Geto Boys and of course UGK, who put my hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, on the map. I was about Goodie Mob and OutKast too.

All the rappers in rave music are like the sloppy seconds of rappers who couldn't make it.

I went from the most underground band in the world to signing with Madonna's producer and a record label that is extremely mainstream - it was interesting.

Lil Jon was definitely a pioneer for some of the punk-rap acts we see now. He showed you could scream on a song and still have a hit on the radio.

Before Lil Jon and The Eastside Boyz, nobody ever said, 'I'm a crunk artist. I make crunk music.'

I like a lot of ratchet, trap music. Definitely 21 Savage. We need some music like that. ManMan Savage. A lot of the Atlanta scene. But Philly, too.

Real hip-hop is Migos, Future.

I like Future, Young Thug, Mike WiLL, DJ Spinz, Metro Boomin, Drake, Kendrick.

I love playing Rick Ross' 'Port of Miami' album. Jeezy's 'Thug Motivation 101' is a classic in my opinion, and I still listen to that album to this day. I'm a big fan of OutKast, so pretty much any album they put out is great in my opinion, but I find myself listening to 'Aquemini' a lot. Anything Kendrick Lamar does is great.

I grew up in the area where we had Three 6 Mafia, and Playa Fly, and 8Ball & MJG. My parents and my family used to listen to it. I learned from them there, and got more into it - listening to the beat of songs, and just learning more about music.

'Bad and Boujee' connects with everybody.

Every single place that's brushed upon me has made me the artist that I am - from Nigerian Highlife music and the vocal melodies that I grew up on when I would be sitting with my father and his fellow chiefs, to the funk and freeness of the Bay Area groove, to L.A.'s smooth G-funk legacy, Brooklyn's lyricism, and now Atlanta's trap history.