Memphis is turning Tay Keith’s impact on the city into a permanent path for the next generation of producers. According to the City of Memphis, Memphis Public Libraries has dedicated its Cloud901 music production room as the Tay Keith Music Lab, creating a space where young people can learn music production while carrying forward the producer’s connection to his hometown.
The Tay Keith legacy celebration also extended beyond the library. Memphis proclaimed September 20 as Tay Keith Day and presented his family with the Key to the City. September 20 would have marked Keith’s 30th birthday. The producer, born Brytavious Lakeith Chambers, died at 29 earlier this year.
The Tay Keith Music Lab was established through a partnership involving Keith’s family, the Tay Keith Legacy Foundation and Memphis Public Libraries. According to the City of Memphis, the existing production room inside Cloud901 at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library was renamed in his honor after a donation from the foundation. Cloud901 offers Memphis teens access to creative technology and training, including resources for music production, photography, videography, and other disciplines.
Keith’s family said the Tay Keith legacy project is intended to do more than preserve his accomplishments. The family explained how the initiative is designed to give future Memphis creatives a place to build.
“This space will connect his legacy to creation and focus on future generations of young DJs, producers, and music moguls to come,” Keith’s family said. “Through an archival collection preserved as part of the historical record of Memphis and Shelby County, along with the 901Voices oral history initiative, all of these elements will serve as a living legacy where future creators can work, where history can be preserved, and a permanent record where Tay’s story can continue to be heard. We feel he would be so proud of this community effort and being able to continue impacting the young creatives in Memphis, which was always a big part of who he was as a person in both his life and music.”
The broader Tay Keith Legacy Initiative includes several programs centered on education and preservation. Tay Keith Beat Making 101 will introduce young participants to music production fundamentals while encouraging them to develop their own sound. The initiative will also establish the Tay Keith Collection, an archive expected to include photographs, notes, studio materials, awards, correspondence, and memorabilia documenting his life and career.
Memphis Public Libraries is also incorporating Keith’s story into its 901Voices oral history program. According to Memphis Public Libraries, relatives and others who knew the producer will be able to record personal memories that will become part of the library’s digital archive. The collection gives the Tay Keith legacy a historical component while allowing people connected to his life to help tell his story in their own voices.
Keith’s musical accomplishments are also being documented as part of that history. His career included four No. 1 records on the Billboard Hot 100, including Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” and Drake’s “First Person Shooter.” The city also noted that Keith attended White Station High School in Memphis before graduating from Middle Tennessee State University in 2018.
His death came just months before the hometown tribute. The Nashville Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Keith died from an accidental overdose involving ketamine and mitragynine-related compounds associated with kratom. He was found inside his Nashville apartment on June 18 after police conducted a welfare check.
Now, the focus in Memphis is on what remains. Through the music lab, educational programming, archival collection, and oral histories, the city and Keith’s family are attaching his name not only to the records he helped create, but also to opportunities for young people who may be trying to make their first beat in the same city that shaped him.
