17 February 2-8, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Month XX–Month XX, 2014 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUTZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | REELIN’ IN THE YEAR Without a doubt, 2022 was the year of Tay Money. BY BRYSON “BOOM” PAUL O ver the past decade, there’s been a recurring argument in the local music industry about who’s the biggest hip- hop artist in North Texas. Ev- ery major metropolitan area in the U.S. probably has the same unsettled debate if they’re lucky to have a hip-hop scene with as many contenders as DFW. Considering that Post Malone is more of a mainstream pop-rock figure at this point, the names that come up most frequently in conversations about the local rap scene are invariably Yella Beezy, the late Mo3, maybe even Trapboy Freddy. But over the last few years, there’s been an undeniable uprising of female artists leading the way in hip-hop, and one of the artists at the forefront is Tay Money, who owned 2022. While some other regional superstars seem to have spent most of their time last year em- broiled in legal issues, beefs and other misad- ventures, Big Tay — who entered the year with high expectations after having the big- gest viral song of 2021 with “The Assign- ment” — just flourished. “The music I have made in 2022 is the best music I have ever made,” Tay Money says while enjoying a slice of pizza during our interview in mid-December. “And I want to start off January, February with the hardest music. There will be no argument if Tay Money is the hardest.” Tay Money believes that the female artist explosion in DFW — which includes Erica Banks, Asian Doll, Cuban Doll, Kaash Paige and S3nsi Molly — stems from the men in the scene counting them out, igniting a fire under the women in the industry to prove them- selves. Tay Money is enjoying this moment. “I love to walk in the room and my chain be bigger than his or whatever,” she says of her male counterparts. “That is a feeling that’s like, ‘Hey, I don’t need nothing.’ I don’t need noth- ing from y’all. I’m here at the front line with you. I’m a bad bitch that holds my own weight. I don’t complain. I don’t be in no drama. I stay to myself. I don’t bother nobody.” Rainwater, Mo3’s manager, has high praise for Tay Money. “I gotta give credit to where it’s due … Tay Money run Dallas right now,” Rainwa- ter said during an Aug. 21 interview on You- Tube show Say Cheese with its founder, Shawn Cotton. “Tay Money is the only per- son doing their own shows. She got her own fanbase. She ain’t going at no girls, on no goofy shit. So I crown Tay Money the King of Dallas right now.” Unsurprisingly, Tay Money agrees with that assessment. “And that is 100% facts because when I step outside, boy, you would think I brought the city out,” she says in response to Rainwa- ter’s comments. “I’m having fun every time I do something. I enjoy this. It’s my job.” Her music recently appeared on the award-winning TV show Abbott Elemen- tary, and she graced the cover of the Dallas- based CoSign Magazine. But for Tay Money, 2022 was about understanding growth within her career. “I’m learning about the business side more than I ever have,” she says. “I’m learn- ing more patience. I’ve just become such a woman. I used to have my mama help me with a lot of things, and now I think I’m helping my mama with a lot of things, and that’s probably the best feeling and the rea- son why I’m even doing it.” Born and raised in Athens, Texas, the 29-year-old rap star made her debut in 2016. She’s since evolved from ambitious freesty- ler to a consistent hitmaker, becoming one of the most influential stars to ever explode out of North Texas. Like Eminem and G- Eazy before her, Big Tay is erasing the typi- cal assumptions and stereotypes that come with being a white rapper, not to mention a female one, by making undeniably relevant music (she has over 800,000 monthly listen- ers on Spotify alone) and perfecting her magnetic lyricism. Tay keeps her energy up but stays in her lane and focuses on her fans. “I love that feeling, and I will always be myself because I feel like you can’t go wrong with being you,” she says of defying stereo- types. “Sometimes I could see where doing interviews or doing things where people may portray you a certain way, and I see ev- ery day in the media where they portrayed certain people a certain way, and I just think as long as I’m myself, there could be ... Y’all could fight with y’all self. You know what I’m saying? I’m me. You can’t make me not be me.” The “Bussin” hitmaker kicked off 2022 with the release of her new mixtape, Girls Gone Duh, in April. She was nervous about re- leasing the project because of the high expec- tations following the success of “Bussin,” but she remembered the advice she’d received from multi-platinum recording artist D.R.A.M. (“Broc- coli”) years prior. “He reached out and told me, ‘Hey, your melody stuff is crazy. You just need to write melody and you’re gone,’ and that stuck with me forever,” she says of D.R.A.M. She realized she wanted to be in that space, as a rap-pop crossover. “And I do feel that one of those will take me to the next level,” she says. “I do think that that is what’s going to take me to the next level. I don’t think that it will be a hardcore, hardcore rap song. I think it’s going to be the bouncing vulnerable, love, bad bitch anthem.” The 14-song collection drew fans with the viral hit, “The Assignment.” The mixtape gave fans the expected man-eater, twerking, boss-lady songs, but also showcased a newly single Tay Money. On the song “Fake Love,” she addressed her break-up with popular music video director Cole Bennett (Eminem, Juice Wrld). Referencing Chicago, Bennett’s hometown, she questions his mental state for letting her get away. “I was in Chicago, he was on bullshit. How you fumble Tay Money? Man, I swear you stu- pid,” she raps on the song. “Now you know what, I’m on new money, new dick. He keep texting me, ‘Where you at?’ Boy, I’m hoopin’.” Writing “Fake Love” was personal, but also a shout-out to all women who’ve en- dured similar fuckery. “I went into the studio, and I had some fire in my heart, and I would much rather rap about it than talk about it,” she says. “Be- cause somewhere out there, some girl’s go- ing through the same thing, some way, somehow. And I’m like, my music is for you, shawty — turn it up.” Tay never spoke about her relationship before she made the album. “I wasn’t going to speak about it,” she says. “And for that to be ... It was just like they had been waiting on something. Every- one was asking what happened, and I thought that that would be the best way to express it.” The song allowed Tay Money to redis- cover her self-esteem after real- ▼ Music “IT’S A LOT OF PRESSURE BECAUSE YOU WANT TO STAY AT THE TOP AND TO STAY RELEVANT.” - TAY MONEY The year 2022 was Tay Money’s, and we were all just living it. Cody Grafe >> p18
