The world knows Tay Keith as a native Memphian and hitmaking producer who worked with music industry luminaries such as Beyoncé and Drake.
But Keith’s sister, Lisa Austin, remembers him as the little brother whose typical childhood foibles gave way to a deep passion for music.
“We were taking all the clothes out of the bedroom closet to turn it into an actual studio. Putting a sock over the microphone, even ruining my very first college laptop making beats and putting viruses on it,” Austin said with a smile.
On Monday, Austin attended a formal dedication ceremony inside the Cloud901 Teen Learning Lab at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library for the newly updated music production space honoring her late brother.
Cloud901, a two-story, 8,300-square-foot facility launched in 2015, is a technology-driven production studio for music, video, arts, robotics, coding and stage performance with professional equipment for use by teens 13 to 18 years old who have a valid library card.
“This lab is more than just putting Tay’s name on a room,” Austin said. “It’s about access and opportunity.”
From Memphis kid to hitmaker
Born Brytavious Lakeith Chambers in Memphis, Keith attended White Station High School and graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 2018, when his music had already become more than experimental noise coming from a makeshift bedroom studio.
Keith, who died in June at age 29, would go on to become one of the industry’s most recognizable producers, releasing four No. 1 records, including Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” and Drake’s “First Person Shooter,” and 11 top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. He also earned two Grammy nominations for his work.
His family had watched him for years as he developed his talent, Austin said, so his rise initially felt almost natural. Their father, a locksmith, had encouraged entrepreneurship while they were growing up, she said, and Keith approached music with the same mindset.
Around the time of his college graduation, Austin said, Keith and his family began to grasp the scale of what was happening. By then, the little brother making beats at home was earning accolades in the music industry, where commercial success is hard to achieve.
A place to make the next beat
The Tay Keith Music Lab is part of a broader partnership between Memphis Public Libraries and the Tay Keith Legacy Foundation aimed at preserving Keith’s story and creating opportunities for aspiring musicians.
“Cloud gives young people a place to learn, experiment, produce and find their own voices in a state-of-the-art instructional environment,” said Dr. Eric Harris, director of Memphis Public Libraries.
The Tay Keith Legacy Initiative, part of the musician’s eponymous foundation, will also include a permanent archival collection of materials from Keith’s life and career, along with oral histories from family and friends for the library’s 901Voices project. And courses aimed at helping would-be musicians explore their creativity will be offered.
“(Beatmaking 101) is going to help people create their own beats, develop their own sound and understand the craft behind music production that Tay developed and became so good at,” Harris said.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young, who spoke at the dedication ceremony, said Keith and his team reached out to him shortly after he was elected because the producer wanted to talk about ways he could invest in the city.
After one of their first conversations, Young said Keith told him: “I’m going to call you every Monday.”
Keith was especially interested in creating opportunities for young people.
“And he called me literally every Monday,” Young said. “So a world superproducer was calling the mayor every week because he wanted to figure out just how to maximize his impact on the city that made him who he was.
“He understood firsthand what could happen when a young person has the tools that they need, along with an opportunity and somebody who believes in them,” Young said. “There may be no better way to carry Tay’s legacy forward than to give the next generation a place to create.”
Austin said Keith never stopped identifying with Memphis, even as his career took him onto larger stages.
“He just took his city wherever he went,” she said. “He showed love. He always, always repped Memphis.”
And she believes the lab reflects that part of him.
“Our hope is that a young person walks into the Tay Keith Lab and creates their first beat,” Austin said. “And, one day, we’re watching the next great producer or creative come out of Memphis.”
