Tayc
Meet the King of R&B in France, Taking Afro Music Global
Tayc’s journey started back in 2012 when he was just a teenager arriving to the city of Paris from the port city Marseille. While attending school and being immersed in the arts, Tayc would eventually find his passion and fully pursue a career in music. He debuted in 2017 with the album Alchemy.
Since his arrival, Tayc has made a significant impact in the Afro and R&B music scene of France. He has received immense success and popularity, with nearly 900 million views on YouTube, 6 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and several albums and singles reaching the top of the charts and achieving platinum, gold, and diamond certifications.
In addition, Tayc has obtained a global presence. He has collaborated with renowned international artists, such as Tiwa Savage, Fally Ipupa, Oxlade, Dadju, and Jason Derulo, among others. Tayc has received multiple award nominations, both in France and abroad, while also winning France’s Dancing With the Stars competition. All while gaining fans and performing throughout Europe, Africa, and North America.
After his first album Fleur Froide (2020), the bilingual R&B and Afro star has presented rhythm and blues fans his latest masterpiece, the 9 track album Room 96, which is now available on all platforms.
Tayc – Room 96, Available Now on All Plaforms. Download and Stream Here
Meet and Get To Know Tayc
Kulture Vulturez: Growing up in France and coming from a Cameroonian background how has those two cultures collided and help build your level of creativity and as an artist?
Tayc: Coming from a Cameroonian background and growing in France was something that gave me all my inspiration. I was born in Marseille, and there’s a lot of African people in Marseille. So, I just grew up with a lot of African people in my family. This is also the the thing that made me become an Afro lover, because I have the sensibility of Afro music, Afro vibes, and Afro culture. So, it really helped me. To me, it’s a treasure. It’s a treasure being Cameroonian and a Cameroonian boy that grew up in Paris and in France.
Kulture Vulturez: You relocated to Paris at a young age. Was that solely for music, or for another reason?
Tayc: Yes, I was 17 when my mom sent me [to Paris]. It was literally for school. It was for studying to become a good boy because I wasn’t a really good boy in Marseille (laughing out loud). She just kicked me from Marseilles to Paris to be to become a good boy. It really helped me change my life, though.
Tayc – D O D O
Kulture Vulturez: What initially gave you that spark and motivation to start music?
Tayc: I think I always used to sing. I would always sing with my sister, with my family, or even when watching music videos on television. I already had the music filling in my soul for me. When I arrived in Paris, I was at a private school and they had a studio for us. They had a lot of games for us, but also a studio.
When I arrived at the studio it just changed my [way of thinking]. It just changed my life. I was like, Yo, I don’t want to go anywhere else. I just want to stay in the studio. It was a little studio, something really little, and something really humbling. But it was something big for me.
I just started to do songs with a producer who is named Vince Marshall. He’s the guy who I started music with. He would just hype me, like, ‘Yo, you have a really good voice. Even if the lyrics are not there, even if it’s not perfect right now, there’s something to do with you. So keep going.’ I was recording and recording, again and again. I was doing maybe five songs a week. Like literally, five songs a week. He really helped me to be confident with myself. It helped me to to become who I am right now.
Kulture Vulturez: Do you feel there are any challenges being an Afro artist in France?
Tayc: Three years before it was something challenging. Now I think Afro is the best music in the world and the best influence in the world right now. Even American people, they are now trying to know about their roots and everything because they feel right now that Afro is something powerful.
Afro is the present and the future to me. Afro is the beginning of everything. Africa is the beginning of everything. Now, it’s not something hard being an Afro artist. It’s more a blessing than anything. Being an Afro artist also gave me my passport for the world. I don’t think that I would travel the world with R&B, or with hip hop, or with just rap music. But thanks to Afro music I saw a lot of countries that I would never see without Afro music. So, it’s a good thing and a blessing.
Tayc – Sans effet
Kulture Vulturez: How important is it for you to grow your music and your brand globally and internationally outside of France?
Tayc: It’s really important for me because, like I told you, God gave me this blessing to do Afro music, to speak English, and to have this influence in my mind and in my soul. So, I need to use it. God gave me this blessing. My mentality, my mindset, everything that God gave me, I need to use it to grow, and grow, and grow.
I know that I can act, and I’m going to do movies. I know that I can dance on stage. I know that I can speak in English, so I’m going to talk to the world. Everything that God gave me I will use it for my music, for my life, for my purposes, for my goals, and for my everything.
Kulture Vulturez: What have been your most meaningful accomplishments and achievements?
Tayc: I think that the thing that I’m the most proud about is watching my family right now counting on me. Counting on me for business, counting on me for their lives. Talking to my dad like a real man after everything that I did when I was a child. I was a little bit hard. I wasn’t that hard, but I was a little bit hard with my parents and with my family when I was younger.
So, just seeing the way that they are proud of me. Like they are really proud of me. My dad is even asking me for some advice for business. Can you imagine, my dad. I’m really proud about that. My family’s proud of me. My family needs me to grow their own businesses, too. My sister, she’s 34 right now, and I’m 26, she’s my assistant. She’s my assistant for everything, for my music, for my business, for my producing, and for my label. Taking all my family and putting all of them in my music and my career is something I’m really proud about.
I want to be an artist that reaches, that plugs, and helps everybody in every part of artistry, like music, movies, art, painting, everything. I want people to ask me for my advice and for my help. I want to help and to create with a lot of artists.
Tayc – Room 69 (The Movie)
Kulture Vulturez: Can you break down your your latest album, Room 96? What led you to this release?
Tayc: Before dropping Room 96, I felt that I was in an argument with R&B because it’s been a long time that I did a R&B track. Before I was like, Afro, Afro, Afro, Afro music. Yeah, Afro music is everything but there are R&B lovers. So, what about R&B?
In France, R&B music when I started in 2018 wasn’t that famous. It wasn’t something that can go on charts. In 2023 right now, on TikTok, and even all the social media platforms, I see that R&B is coming up right now. R&B is something that is dope right now. So, people are listening to R&B music. There’s a lot of R&B artists. I was one of those ones who started with R&B in 2018 and people wasn’t f***ing with it. People were like R&B is goofy or it’s not the new vibe. It’s an old vibe, so just forget about it. So, I was like, okay.
Now we’re in 2023 and people f*** with R&B. So, I’m going to give you some R&B. That’s the reason why I just dropped Room 96. It was to give R&B to my community.
Kulture Vulturez: What’s next for you after this release of Room 96?
Tayc: I want to reconnect with Afro music. I’m really proud that my R&B music is going up on the charts right now. Room 69, which is one of the tracks from Room 96, is number one on TikTok. I’m dropping the music video in the coming days (“Room 69” is now available). So with R&B, I can go on the charts and everything, and I’m proud about it.
But okay, I made this with R&B, now let’s go back to Afro music. Let’s drop a new project for the summer. I don’t want to just do one song, because when you do one song people have the choice to like it or hate it. I want to give a whole project so you will find your thing in that project. You will f*** with something in the project. One track you’re not giving people choices to pick. So, I’m going to give a whole project. I think this thing will be bigger than just a track.