Internet Money Records founder, Taz Taylor, talks about having billions of streams, working with now hip hop legends XXXTentacion and Juice WRLD, and going viral on TikTok.
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SCHOOL DROPOUT TO DROPPING HIT RECORDS
Born and raised in Florida, Taz Taylor has been making music ever since he was 18 (after dropping out of school at 7th grade). Now 28, he’s earned three Grammy nominations, more than 30 gold and platinum plaques, countless singles on the Billboard chart, a billion streams on Spotify, and a million Tiktok plays on Internet Money’s single, His & Hers, featuring Don Toliver, Gunna, and Lil Uzi Vert.
When asked how he deals with the hype surrounding him and his collective, Taz says, “I still get lucid dreams when I think about it.” Referring to the work he’s produced for Juice WRLD’s (rest in peace) most-streamed song, Lucid Dreams. “I’m so stuck in my bubble that I don’t realize how big of a deal are those achievements,” while showing us the gold platinum record on his wall for XXXTentacion’s Fuck Love. “I’m from Florida and we always have hurricanes. You know when you’re inside the eye and you don’t notice much of what’s happening around you? That’s what it feels like.”
TYPE BEATS TO TIKTOK
Initially selling type beats on music platform Soundcloud via Paypal and Twitter, Taz Taylor recognizes the power of the Internet. There’s always been a discourse in music and how much of the older musicians in the game raise their brows at the fact that artists and record producers of today have attained their success through posting on the Internet, thinking it’s a “cheat sheet” when it’s not. The Internet may be a huge platform for aspirants to thrive, but it doesn’t come without being part of the dark, twisted black hole of criticism. With his work with XXXTentacion on the 2017 single Fuck Love ft. Trippie Redd being the most-played song in Soundcloud history, it’s proof that he’s harnessed the said “cheat sheet” to his advantage. Add to that the production he did for Drake’s Blue Tint, the now-viral song on TikTok, His & Hers that has over 3.8 million videos, Jackson Wang’s latest single, Drive You Home, and of course, Lemonade ft. Gunna, Don Toliver, and NAV.
While artists like Kid Cudi feel upset about their tracks going viral and being remixed, Taz doesn’t mind. “It’s not like we paid a million people to use our song. It’s pretty cool. I love TikTok, I’m a TikToker myself!” On asked about people’s ridiculous stereotype of “Soundcloud rappers/producers,” and the mockery of how others think that music isn’t a “real paying job,” Taz doesn’t pay attention to any of it. “I’m just here to do what I have to do, I don’t really give a fuck about any of that.”
Now that he’s founded record producer collective Internet Money, it has supported aspiring artists by filling in the gaps of the music scene through beat-making tutorials on their YouTube channel—a formula that Taz Taylor believes helped him in his career. From discovering his love for music at an early age to now breaking records at 28, Taz says, “I just really love making music. Who knows what other things are in store for me when I turn 35 or 40? It’s the same with Jay Z and Kanye when they founded their own labels. I also want to give back to the community, the people, especially the homeless.”
