Grammy-Nominated Producer Behind ‘Sicko Mode’ Found Dead in Nashville, Death Under Investigation Pending Autopsy
Grammy-nominated producer Tay Keith, the Memphis hitmaker whose sound helped define a major era of hip-hop, was found dead Thursday afternoon in his Nashville apartment. He was 29.
Metro Nashville Police said officers found Keith, born Brytavious Lakeith Chambers, while conducting a welfare check at his Martin Street apartment. Authorities said no foul play is suspected at this time. His death remains unclassified pending autopsy results.
Keith’s sudden death has stunned the music world, where he had built a reputation as one of rap’s most recognizable young producers. Police have not released a cause of death, and officials said the case remains pending until the medical examiner completes an autopsy.
The Tennessee native rose from Memphis’ music scene to become a go-to producer for some of the biggest names in hip-hop, R&B and pop. His work reached clubs, arenas and charts with the kind of bounce that made folks know the beat before the artist even started rapping.
Keith was born Sept. 20, 1996, and attended White Station High School in Memphis. His rise became closely tied to the city’s gritty, unmistakable sound, especially after his breakout work with BlocBoy JB on “Look Alive,” featuring Drake.
The song became a Memphis anthem in its own right, with the now-famous line, “901 Shelby Drive, look alive, look alive,” shouting out the city’s area code and one of its well-known streets.
Keith later spoke about how deeply Memphis shaped him, telling Rolling Stone in 2022, “I was born into this shit and raised in this shit. Memphis music is all I listened to and all my family listened to. My stepfather who I am still close with really influenced my taste for music.”
From ‘Sicko Mode’ to Beyoncé
Keith’s biggest mainstream breakthrough came with Travis Scott’s 2018 hit “Sicko Mode,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Song. The track became one of the defining rap records of the late 2010s and cemented Keith’s place among hip-hop’s elite producers.
His catalog also included Drake’s “Nonstop,” BlocBoy JB’s “Look Alive,” Sexyy Red’s “Pound Town,” and work with Future, Moneybagg Yo, Pooh Shiesty, G-Eazy and Beyoncé. He also earned another Grammy nomination for “Rich Flex” by Drake and 21 Savage.
Keith’s production style carried the weight of Memphis while still cutting cleanly through mainstream radio. In plain terms, his beats traveled well.
Tay Keith Looked Beyond Music
Even as his music career continued to grow, Keith had spoken publicly about wanting to expand into other industries, especially technology.
In his 2022 Rolling Stone interview, he said he wanted to use the “leverage that we have in the music industry to take advantage of the opportunities in the tech world.”
“We came from Section 8, sleeping on our family couches, so just us being able to come in these rooms and have a voice and having financial literacy is big,” Keith said. “Understanding that we want to be the biggest — not just hip-hop, because we’ve mastered it and accomplished it — but also the biggest thing in other industries, specifically tech.”
His death marks a major loss for Memphis, Nashville and the wider music industry.
This is a developing story.
