[Taz Taylor](https://www.instagram.com/thetaztaylor/?hl=en) is the genius behind Internet Money, and he has no plans of slowing down anytime soon. Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, the superproducer and label founder has earned over 100 Gold and Platinum plaques to his name, with 14 #1 hits, 3 Grammy noms, and one hell of a story.
Coming from true humble beginnings, a 3-year-old Taylor remembers going to band practice with his stepdad who was in a band, playing on the drums, guitar, and bass while they were on break. Dropping out of the 7th grade at age 13, Taylor found himself making beats—and the rest was history. From selling his first beat for $250 to now being responsible for some of rap’s biggest hits, from “LEMONADE” to Lil Tecca’s “Ransom” to Juice WRLD’s “Lucid Dreams,” Taylor is the true definition of a hitmaker if there ever was one.
Currently playing the father figure to his squad of producers, songwriters, and artists that make up Internet Money, while playing the real father to his 6-year-old son, Taylor wakes up every day motivated to do better than the last day. Now following the success of compilation album _B4 The Storm_—which hailed standout features from Swae Lee, Future, Trippie Redd, Wiz Khalifa, Juice WRLD, and many more—Taz has been booking out the studio daily working on the second album.
_Flaunt_ caught up with Taylor via FaceTime, who was posted in his garage blazing with his Internet Money family. Read below as we discuss designing his own plaque, the success of “LEMONADE,” the rise of Internet Money, an average day in the life, retirement plans, love for cannabis, and more!
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**Is there a name for the second album yet?**
Mmm, no idea. I know I got the next single though. I can’t tell you what it is, it’s coming out in January. Cole said he’s doing the video, but I can’t say who’s on it. It’s “Lemonade” 2, it’s going to be as big.
**How are you so confident?**
Because it’s a good song, and I know a hit record.
**How easy is it for you to hit up Cole Bennett?**
I sent him an mp3 and he said “I’m down 100%, whatever you need.” \[laughs\]
**How do you guys celebrate your wins?**
We hang them on the walls and don’t ever do anything to celebrate. We don’t celebrate. We’ll get a statement 9 months from now like “oh yeah, we did that! That’s cool, I remember. That’s fire.”
**You have plaques everywhere, are you afraid of running out of wall space?**
I think I’ve already hit that point. Because I got OCD with the shit, I like all my Billboard plaques to be in one spot. I have 18 of those, it’s hard to fit all of those in one spot. Now “Lemonade” is Platinum, we just designed a plaque for that. It’s going to be 6 feet tall, what wall is that plaque going on? \[laughs\]
**You designed the plaque?**
Yeah, I design my plaques. They wanted to put the cover art on it and I said “no, I don’t want to do that shit.” I went and hired the guy who did the cover art for _B4 The Storm,_ gave him ideas and everything.
**How many times a day do you hear “LEMONADE”?**
None. \[laughs\] I’ll hear it if my girl’s on TikTok or something. I’m not walking around listening to “Lemonade.” I tweeted out earlier, I don’t hear people listening to it. I don’t hear people run by or hear it on the radio, so I don’t know how big “Lemonade” actually is.
**Did you ever get sick of hearing “Ransom”?**
Nah, I didn’t even realize how big “Ransom” was. It came out in April 2019, I didn’t realize it until we heard it at Rolling Loud in December and everybody‘s fucking with it. I’m like oh damn, “Ransom” was a big song. It was third. I guess I’m a part of so many major ass records at this point as a producer, it all feels the same now. Even though I own the record.
**How’s Lil Tecca doing nowadays?**
He’s doing his thing, that’s my boy. He’s somebody they can relate to, he looks like his fans—they recognize themselves in him. On top of that, his melodies are good, the songs are funny and catchy. That’s why people fuck with Tecca.
**How did you come up with the name, Internet Money?**
I was working with a rapper named More Money. My homeboy Denzel that works with me now, he’s going by the name Art Money and they called me Internet Money. I tweeted it out and people started running with it. I’m like nah, I’ma to call my shit this before people can take it.
**What excites you?**
Doing shit people don’t think I can do. People didn’t expect me to have one of the biggest songs of the year, I did that. Now that I did that, alright do I really want another big song again? I already did it, I feel like I need to go do something else.
**“Lemonade” was so big, do you feel pressure to top it?**
Nah. I wouldn’t put anything out if I didn’t have it, that wasn’t on that level. I’m not an artist so it’s not like people are waiting for a follow-up. We did an Internet Money album and this song happened to be big. It’s not “oh I’m an artist now and I’m dropping singles.” If I didn’t have anything that was good enough, I wouldn't drop it. There wouldn’t be any other songs. We’d still be successful because we produce for everybody.
**What was the most memorable collaboration from _B4 The Storm_?**
The whole process behind “Lemonade.” The “Thrusting” shit getting in the studio with Swae when the Corona shit was going pretty heavy, it was crazy. I don’t think the Coronavirus is going to stop Swae Lee. \[laughs\]
**Jozzy brought up recently that women may not be heard enough in the music industry. Do you have any women in Internet Money?**
Not right now. Not because I’m like “no women,” it’s because I haven’t found a woman I particularly can relate to musically. I’m not the type of person to chase something because it makes a lot of money like a lot of people are. It’ll happen though. I’ve been looking.
**Have you?**
I really have. I have a session tonight with an artist I’m trying to sign, she’s fire. Her name’s 500RAXX, she’s from the LA area. She’s hard.
**How did you find her?**
Spotify, just looking. Going through playlists, all that shit.
**How much time do you spend searching the internet?**
I got A&Rs who send me playlists. Sometimes I get tired of hearing the same shit, because I’m mostly listening to songs we work on with artists. If they don’t want it, then I’ll keep it for myself. I’ll want to listen to something new so I’ll look through playlists, I follow people on Spotify. I’ll go listen through what they’re listening to and find some cool shit.
**Who makes the cut to be in Internet Money?**
Ultimately, it comes down to music. If you’re good at what you do and there’s chemistry, we like working with you. The first night we got in with Tecca we made 5, 6 Platinum songs. We work with people, we build up a catalog. We start working and every song’s good, then let’s figure something out. It all comes down to music. I don’t care what people look like or where they come from, is the music good?
**What’s the age range of your career?**
We got everybody, we got people from 15 to 33.
**What’s your favorite weed?**
I don’t care. If it’s green and it looks like weed, roll that shit up and I’ll smoke it. It has to be over 30% THC. Preferably on the higher side, 35%. Give me one of them fake statistical numbers with a fake percentage, 34.8% THC. Oh yeah they did this to the fuckin tee, let me smoke that.
**How are you balancing fatherhood with all that you do?**
I feel like I’m a father to many people. I have 50 people in Internet Money I give life advice to every day on a day to day basis. Being a father to an actual child is different. He’s cool, he’s my biggest fan. He loves all the music I do, I include him on everything. I look at it as I got to sacrifice certain things right now so I can go do what I want to do. Whenever I’m 40, I’ve already done everything. He’s 5-years-old and he’s already a Platinum producer.
**Wait, how?**
Because he’s on the album as an executive producer, I DJ Khaled-d it. He has his college tuition already paid for. I’m probably going to end up retiring when I’m 35, I don’t want to be working past that. That’s the time where I can really sit down and be a dad. Right now in the time that I get to be with him, he’s my boy. That’s my boy right there.
**What’s his favorite Internet Money song?**
He thinks I produced every song that’s ever been made in existence to man. His favorite artist is daddy and “Old Town Road.” He doesn't know the artist who sings “Old Town Road,” he just loves the artist “Old Town Road” and me.
**On the fashion tip, How would you describe your drip?**
Sloppy, it's terrible. I’m going very cartoon character like Doug Funnie from _Doug._ You know whenever he opened up his closet, it’s the same green sweater vest? That’s what I’m going for. I want the same thing every day. If I find something I really like, I buy 15 of them. I’ll wear different versions until I gotta re-wash them, then I wear 15 more different versions.
**What’s that one go-to outfit though?**
It’s normally a black hoodie. It could be whatever kind, doesn’t matter.
**Talk about the Internet Money event coming fall of 2021.**
We're locking in a festival right now if it’s going to be open. I’m trying to do something with the city of Jacksonville, donate to charity or something cool like that. Do a fire ass festival, try to figure it out. My agents are talking to everybody, it’s going to be fire.
**Any advice for upcoming producers?**
Keep working. It doesn't matter what you’re actually making because music’s all relative anyways. Keep working, stay busy, try different shit. If shit ain’t working, pivot to something else and keep your head up. People will tell you no because it seems like shit’s not gonna work, stay working. 10 years ago, someone told me I’d never make another beat again.
**Who said that?**
I looked up my first studio session, I played beats and somebody told me I’d never make beats again. That studio session was December 4th, 2010. It’s December 6th right now, I seen it on Facebook.
**Have you talked to this person?**
Nah I don’t care. They’re aware, they know. It’s funny, people told me no and I kept going in. This was all I had that worked. If you stay working at something long enough, you’ll get an opportunity or chance. Understand when that opportunity presents itself, take advantage of it.
**3 Grammy noms, 58 platinum plaques, 33 gold, and 14 Billboard #1s… what’s next?**
Retirement at 35, owning a yacht. Walking off my house onto the yacht, smoking hella LB’s on a yacht somewhere and living my life. Selling my catalog by 36, no one will hear of me ever again.
**Why 36?**
I don’t know. \[laughs\] One day I’ll want to work until I’m 50, and tomorrow I’ll be wanting to retire tomorrow.
**Anything else you want us to know?**
Free my boy Kodak, Florida needs him right now. And free \[YNW\] Melly.
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