Tay Keith Quotes

Growing up, I was definitely surrounded by music all the time. My parents used to always play music; my dad used to have reggae on. I remember walking around with a cassette recorder, and I used to just record the songs I would hear on the radio so I could play it back when I feel like.

The people we grew up watching and listening to - Outkast, Gucci Mane, Hot Boys, Lil Wayne, Master P - all that type of stuff, we took those styles and made it our own.

I started producing when I was listening to The Diplomats. The first time I heard Cam'ron was 'Dead or Alive.'

When I was little, my dad showed me N.E.R.D., their first album, and I thought it was amazing. I thought Pharrell was just killing everything. That was my first introduction to rap.

I've always been music-oriented. My dad was a musician, and I listened to the radio all of the time.

But working with Dre, I grew up with his music, so I'm still like more a fan.

My mum was a big fan of E.L.O. and Elvis Costello. She used to play that, consistently, all the time when we were kids. And my dad, he would claim to be a singer... You know, he loves singing, and he used to sing a lot when he was a kid and at parties and stuff like that. So I come from a very party-musical family.

When you're riding with your mom, and you're a kid, you'd listen to 'Dear Mama' and the radio friendly records. I used to sneak and listen to Too $hort.

The kids that are making the ghetto stuff I can't even reach are the ones that are inspiring me to play music for the other kids in the city they don't even know about. If I don't get those kids making music, there won't be an original kid DJing like me in five to 10 years.

Nas always been my favorite rapper, but 50 Cent, he changed my way of thinking about music 'cause he was so detailed in his music, I knew that wasn't lying. I never felt Tupac that way; I never felt Biggie that way. I love Nas music, but I never felt and believed like, 'This is for real.' 'Cause I grew up that gangsta lifestyle.

People can look to me as a teacher, but I consider myself a student of hip-hop.

Hee Haw was probably my biggest exposure to live music at a young age, because there wasn't any live music around my town and no one in my family played instruments.

I remember singing around the house to records that were playing. All kinds of music. And the great James Cleveland was often in our house, and I grew up with his sound as well.

My daughter, who is 7 years old - I have no idea where she learned this - she made a video where she's beat-boxing. We have no idea where the beat-boxing came from, but all of a sudden, there it was. Now we're launched into lyric sheets for every single song that is current. They're all over our house.

I look at Lil Wayne as being from my generation.

If it wasn't for 2 Live Crew videos wouldn't look like they do and rappers wouldn't sound like they do.

Juicy J was always one of my favorites. For one, he was a producer and I just used to love how he came on his verses every time.

With L.A. it's like, yeah, there's Death Row and whatever. But I always wanted to know what those artists were sampling. It's how I fell in love with music.

I used to make demo tapes with cats that rocked with Russell Simmons and people like that. The history goes so far back; I've always been really focused on writing dope rhymes.

I've got all of the old school vinyls from the '70s - even further back, like the jazz music in the '40s, '50s, '60s. Then I've got all the '80s stuff underground, hip-hop when hip-hop really first started. The '90s stuff. All of the good stuff, because I'm really into music, and it helps me create new songs now.

A lot people don't know that Mannie Fresh is one of my favorite producers because I used to just be fascinated with how he would be producing stuff. He'd be silly, too, when he raps.

I like music, I listened to all rappers; people like Jeezy, Yo Gotti, T.I.

I always argue with a lot of people. They ask me for my top rappers, and he's always on my list. I mean, the GZA inspired me.

My mum is from Ghana, and she used to play highlife music in the house, and my dad used to listen to music.

When I was a kid, my favorite rapper was 50 Cent. He was definitely a big influence on why I wanted to do music.