Twelve minutes and forty-eight seconds. That’s how long Tay gives listeners on Whatever It Takes, his new EP out April 14. Six tracks, no filler, and a runtime that respects the listener’s time.
The project lands as a follow-up to his July 2025 single “I Might,” and it’s built around one central idea: reflecting on a relationship that didn’t make it. Tay isn’t vague about what the EP is for. He’s said it’s about looking back at what he lost and thinking through what he’d do differently to get her back. That framing gives the sequencing a clear shape, moving from “Don’t Burn Me Down” and “Ride for Me” into “Need Your Lovin,” pausing at the “How Can You Let It Go?” interlude, and closing out with “When You’re Ready” and “Will We Be Ok?”
What stands out first is the polish. For an artist still building his name, the writing, production, engineering, and mix on this project are noticeably sharp. Nothing sounds thin or rushed. His cadence carries a lot of the weight, which tracks with how he talks about his influences. Drake taught him how to pair melody with introspection, while Lil Durk and Juice WRLD showed him how to be direct about the personal stuff. You can hear all three in the DNA of the EP without any of them swallowing his voice.
Ask Tay how he’d pitch his music to a first-time listener and he calls it “melodic, reflective, and experience-driven,” pulled from real situations. “It’s more about understanding what went wrong, growing from it, and expressing that honestly through the music,” he says. That’s the mode the EP operates in. Each song holds its own shape while staying in the same emotional register, and the vulnerability and confidence are both on the mic.
His path to this point started early. He was freestyling with his dad and cousins around nine or ten years old, all of them deep in the Master P and No Limit era. That’s actually where the name Tay came from, a nickname from that era of listening. Before he had real beats, he was tapping rhythms with his hands and a pencil, recording them on his dad’s laptop sound recorder, layering vocals over the top, and burning the results to CDs. His uncle Clarence used to play his music through the car and blast it around the neighborhood. Tay has credited that kind of early support as a big reason he kept going.
Right now he’s pushing Whatever It Takes while working on his next album, It’s Time, aimed for a summer 2026 release. He’s described that one as more upbeat and something people can vibe to, a shift in energy from the introspection driving this EP. The honesty stays, the mood opens up.
As for what he wants people to walk away with: “I hope listeners feel understood,” Tay says. “Whether they’re dealing with love, loss, or growth, I want the music to feel like it’s speaking directly to them. If it helps someone process what they’re going through or see things a little differently, then I’ve done what I set out to do.”
Whatever It Takes is streaming now on Spotify, and fans can follow Tay on Instagram and TikTok for updates on It’s Time and the visuals on deck.
