If there?s one thing in life you cannot escape, it?s destiny. At 18 years-old, Miami-born rapper Tay Dizm left the comfort and security of his foster mother?s house in search of his real family. After reconnecting with his two biological brothers who had formed a rap group called FMB, Tay realized he too wanted to rap and set out on a career path that would ultimately lead him to befriend the Grammy award winning, super producer T-Pain.
In 2003, Tay Dizm met T-Pain after the two faced off in a spontaneous dance competition in a Tallahassee, FL nightclub. After building a friendship, T-Pain offered to take Dizm on the road with him as his hype man. The two traveled the globe extensively for close to four years, before Tay was ready to become an artist in his own right. Now, Dizm will serve as the first artist to be released from T-Pain?s newly formed independent label, Nappy Boy Digital. Thanks to the overwhelming success of his first single ?Beam Me Up,? which features both T-Pain and Rick Ross, Dizm is well on his way to becoming the successful artist he was always meant to be.
For the first years of his life, Tay Dizm (born Artavious Smith), was raised under the care of social workers and various foster parents. Because his biological mother was deemed unfit, Tay was placed in a permanent foster home at the age of five where he would stay until his senior year of high school. ?My mom was doing her thing so I really never got the chance to bond with her,? says Tay. ?People used to always come pick me up and I?d stay at this home for a little bit and then this home, but it never really hit me. When I was five I stayed in a house ?til I was like 18 and I?m thinking this person is my mom.?
Just like any other well cared for child, Tay was raised with all the comforts and support of a loving household. When he was in middle school, Tay joined his school?s band and started playing the drums. He continued to study percussion until he entered high school when the allure of playing sports took over. Throughout high school, Tay excelled in football, basketball and track and was even offered college scholarships, but the overwhelming urge to reconnect with his family lead him astray.
?I really wanted to be with my real family,? says Tay. ?I just wanted to get to know them. When I was in my foster home, I was well taken care of. I never had to think about the real world and what was going on out there. So I just dropped out of school my senior year and I moved up to the Gainesville area (Lake City/Ft. White) where my family lived. I just left everything.?
Once he reached Gainesville, Tay started rapping with his two brothers who taught him the essential elements of how to construct rhyme patterns. Together, Tay and his brothers released mixtapes in their area, but still Dizm hungered for more. ?We used to have little group meetings and I would just see bigger things that our group could do, but they had families and stuff so all that was getting in the way,? says Tay. ?I didn?t really have anything to lose so I just went on and left Gainesville and went to Tallahassee.?
Tay moved in with his cousin who was an associate of an up-and-coming rapper turned singer named T-Pain. After meeting Pain only briefly, Dizm ran into him again and ended up going toe-to-toe with the budding entertainer. ?Pain was in the club dancing and I didn?t really know who was dancing so I jumped in the big circle and then me and him was battling in front of everybody,? remembers Tay. ?Later on that night he was like, ?I didn?t know that you danced like that!? And ever since then, we just clicked up.?
T-Pain invited Tay to appear on both of his albums, Rappa Ternt Sanga (2005) and Epiphany (2007), and when it came time to pick his first artist to represent his brand new venture Nappy Boy Digital, Pain chose Dizm. Tay was also handpicked to appear on a number of hard hitting tracks including ?She Got It? with 2 Pistols, ?Who Da Heck is Dat? with Dolla and ?G-5? with Huey. With a web wide release for Tay?s own first single ?Beam Me Up? as well as a strong push at nationwide radio mix shows, Dizm?s sound is starting to take the entire country by storm. ?I?m just myself, I?m not really trying to be nobody,? explains Tay. ?I talk about real stuff, stuff that I?ve been through, when I was coming up as a child. I ain?t on that dope boy stuff ?cause the dope game fucked my whole family up so I really can?t support it.?
With a rhythmic mixture of hip-hop, R&B and soul, Tay strives to make uplifting music that touches on his personal journey and aims to empower his listeners. ?I?m out here to let people know there really is hope and anything that you stick your mind to can happen,? he says. ?I feel like if I can do it, anybody can do it. Nobody gave me nothing so for real man, anything is possible.?
Tay?s debut album, Welcome to the New World, will be released through Nappy Boy Digital early next year and boasts an array of high level collaborators such as Chris Brown, Jim Jonsin, Bangladesh and off course T-Pain. With an amazing team around him and a superstar behind him, Tay Dizm is destined to be a driving force in pop music. Oooohwee!