Producer Tavaras Jordan Is Reviving the Nostalgia of R&B Music.
Tavaras Jordan's Has Always Put His Heart in His Music. Now His Music's At The Heart of a Resurgence.
At its core, R&B is black music, more so gospel music mixed with influences from other genres. Some of the culture’s most prolific performers and producers, like Devante Swing and Teddy Riley, got their start in churches, where they played instruments and learned the basics of music. For Johnsonville, North Carolina native Tavaras Jordan, the church and its sound have always guided him and aided in his signature sound.
Since 2015, he’s worked diligently, producing music for television as well as for artists like Houston’s own LE$. Propelled into stardom following the release of Summer Walker’s landmark song, “Heart of A Woman”, Tavaras and his sound stand in the gap for a generation that can’t let go of the 90’s R&B and a new one eager to get familiar with the magic it produced.
Origin
Born and raised in Johnsonville, North Carolina in 1992, Tavaras was raised by his immediate family, consisting of his mother and father and his older brothers and cousins who exposed him to music from all different times and generations as well as his local church, Johnsonville A.M.E. Zion.
“I grew up in the 90s listening to gospel music. It is my foundation as a musician. I came up under my grandmother who was a minister of music for fifty years and an older cousin who was ten years older who taught me how to play the drums.”
Exposed to music through the church, Tavaras got his experience playing the drums there. When he wasn’t in the church, he was soaking up game from his cousins who played him music from the East, West and South to help inform his palette and doing the usual things country kids do from biking through the woods to playing outside with his friends.
Music remained a passion for Tavaras though and at age sixteen he dived into it full speed, experimenting with production and aiming to create a signature sound. Mannie Fresh’s run as the in-house producer for Cash Money inspired him throughout high school to “stay the course”.
The Real World
Tavaras attended East Carolina University in 2010, graduating in 2015 with his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology His original plan was to have his music career take off before graduation.
“The music was the plan. My plan was to be on and have a major record before graduating college. I thought I ain’t even gotta worry about the workforce. I thought my story would be like Tay Keith who had them joints before he graduated. But it didn’t happen like that at all.”
Inspired to make it, Tavaras got on the grind, working a few 9-5’s and focusing on getting his beats in front of the world. In 2015 he found the acclaimed production group, Beat Bosses Music Group, and after a few submissions was able to get a few of his beats placed that year on television shows like Total Diva, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and Dash Dolls.
The moment was his first taste of success, exposing him to the business side of production. But in his words, “It took another ten years after that before I got one of those ones.”
Things Change
Tavaras spent the next few years working jobs and hustling on the side, but everything changed when he got the chance to work with one of his musical heroes, Houston independent mogul LE$.
“Through him, I felt like I made it. In March of 2021 he hit me up and said yo, we need to project you fire. I was in college listening to his music and he was a vital part of my life soundtrack wise. I use to jam him all the time. Couple weeks later, I was in Houston rocking with him and its been like that ever since.”
Ten projects and three years later, Tavaras and LE$ have cultivated a true producer-and-emcee relationship, opening the door for Tavaras’ to collaborate with rap staples like Larry June, Stalley, and Curren$y.
LE$ work with him helped him gain traction, but his decision to post his original production on YouTube was the tipping point for him, opening the door for a larger audience to hear his music on BeatStars.
“I started posting beats on YouTube two to three years ago consistently. The type beat phenomenon started and I was against it. I went to LA though and some of the LA producers were telling me how they used that to reroute them to their BeatStars changed me. I posted the beat Summer used in August of 2022 after deciding I would make the type of R&B I grew up listening to.”
Labeling his music under the popular title of “90s type beat”, Tavaras was able to become one of the platform’s most notable producers, eventually landing on Summer Walker’s radar. Her highly popular single, “Heart of a Woman” has been making the rounds, becoming one of the year’s biggest singles while also catapulting him into stardom.
“I heard it when the world did through an Instagram snippet. She got the beat off YouTube. I didn’t have to go through managers, or A&Rs, I just bypassed all of that and skipped the line.”
In the months since its release, Tavaras has remained active, collaborating with his longtime friend 10Kdunkin and R&B singer Hannah Monds for her new song, “Naughty”. He also is still working with his longtime collaborator LE$ who just released his new project, GameCube, at the end of 2024. Humble and hopeful, Tavaras’ wish for his career is simple and insightful.
“ I want to be one of those cats ten years from now they are sampling me.”