He also played in a local R&B group, The Mighty Chain Reaction alongside guitar sensation, Jonathan Dubose Jr. Taylor attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where he received a BFA (major in drama and minor in music).

[5][6] He studied composition with Lehman Engel and Vladimir Padwa; voice with Helen Lightner and Kenneth Kamal Scott; piano with John Randolph Eaton and Don Friedman; trumpet with Jimmy Owens.

In 1993, Taylor took center stage as Nomax in the first Broadway tour of Five Guys Named Moe, a jubilant musical featuring the songs of legendary band leader Louis Jordan.

In the following years, he embodied some memorable characters: Crunch in The Last Dragon, The Giggler in Death Wish 3, Sgt Payback in Stanley Kubrick's celebrated war drama Full Metal Jacket, and Sir Nose in Spike Lee's 1988 collegiate classic, School Daze.

[18][19] He can also be seen in other noteworthy films such as Jacknife with Robert De Niro, The Return of Superfly with Sam Jackson, Bonfire of the Vanities, MacArthur Park, and The Sum of All Fears as AFRAT Specialist Wesson in 2002.

[24] In 2014, Taylor made his Carnegie Hall debut in the Broadway Reunion with Black Stars of the Great White Way under the direction of four-time Grammy Award-winning vocal arranger Chapman Roberts.

His students have included Jessie L. Martin, Chandra Wilson, Gary Dourdan, Karina Lombard, Charles Malik Whitfield, Jose Zuniga, Beth Littleford, Ken Marino, Mari Morrow, and Benno Fürmann.