User:RapJournalist 80/sandbox

Taylore Ray Williams (Born June 21, 1994), stage name Taye Bans, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is an independent artist who released his debut project Brand New Bans late 2020. Well known for his debut single Cold Outside, Taye Bans....

Early Life
Williams was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in the Hill District area with his mother and one brother. He starting playing musical instruments at the age of five. He plays multiple instruments including the drums and saxophone. While growing up, his first love of music was usually set aside to play football and basketball year round. To keep him interested, Williams played instruments in school classes and bands from 3rd to 12th grade. He attended The Barack Obama Academy of International Studies for high school where he was a scholar. Although he is now known as a rapper, Williams has a very accredited educational background. Upon graduating with a 4.8 GPA in high school, he attended Robert Morris University where he later graduated with a Bachelors degree in Software Engineering. He then went right back to Robert Morris to get his Masters degree in Cyber Forensics.

Artistic Influences
Taye's music is heavily influenced by Lil Wayne, Drake, T-Pain and Outkast. Being his favorite rapper, Taye gives a lot of credit to Lil Wayne. He studied his ability to integrate word play into a melodic style. T-Pain's autotune along with Wayne's peaked his interest as you can hear in his music today. Taye remains big fans of those artists today as well as some of the newer acts including Gunna, Young Thug, Lil Baby, Travis Scott, Tory Lanez and A Boogie to name a few. In 2020, Taye Bans released his first project Brand New Bans where you can hear the heavy influences throughout. Also influenced by his upbringing in the Hill District (on Bedford Ave) Taye portrays the hard times in half-sung melodies using Auto-Tune. He described his music as having real melodic sounds when either singing about struggles or fame and fortune.

2020: Career beginnings and Brand New Bans series
Taye Bans began as a tracking and mix engineer for various artists in Pittsburgh. He worked out of the famous ID Labs known for producing Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller. Quickly falling in love with the artistry, he tried his hand at rapping and has never looked back. The debut EP Brand New Bans is the start of a series of projects to come. The first installment is five songs featuring the likes of 24hrs, Lougotcash and Stoney. Taye "wanted to take you through the different sides of himself and show versatility" with this project. The project quickly caught on in Pittsburgh and is now working its way onto the national scene.

Discography
EP's and Studio Albums


 * Brand New Bans (2020)