Before Lil TJay became the Internet heartthrob with delectable deliveries
and streams in the multi-millions, he was just a kid from the Bronx with an
equal love for Jay-Z bars and Justin Bieber songs. His mother’s favorite
artists (Usher, Michael Jackson) taught him melody. Today, that melody is
the 18-year-old’s gift as well as a catalyst for his embryonic hip-hop
stardom. To hear the rhyme rookie’s early succession of rap hits is to
experience aqua flows and stark hooks as addictive as Instagram’s
discovery page. A closer listen offers the biography of a kid who survived
adult sins and consequences before he was old enough to drive.
Raised in a NYC neighborhood saturated with gang culture and deficient of
positivity, Lil TJay eventually earned himself a year of incarceration. Upon
release, he committed himself to finding legal routes toward his music
dreams. The studio would be his saving grace and destiny. His first
recording birthed the heartless yet catchy “Resume.” Soon after, the
flammable “Brothers” would earn him his first Internet smash. The
infectious hook and sophisticated harmony snatched ears and eyes to the
tune of 58 million plus YouTube viewers. The follow-up, “None of your
Love” exhibited TJay’s artistic range as it swam into deeper R&B waters to
express a Pitbull’s puppy love. It’s as if Jackson 5 MJ and Future turnt up in
some alternate universe.
The independent hits summoned major record labels, resulting in Lil TJay’s
first courting season. He weathered the rush, eventually deciding to share
a home with Beyonce and Pharrell inside Columbia Records. Shortly after
the Bronx native went platinum with Chicago rapper Polo G (Pop Out).The
EP F.N alongside a record also named F.N is currently on the rise quickly.
Visuals alone for F.N the record racking up over 11M views on youtube.
With 1.5M Instagram fans and platinum SoundCloud status, TJ is a rapidly
rising star, according to the cream of music media: Pitchfork to The New
York Times to Fader to Rolling Stone to countless more. It appears that the
future success of Lil TJay will also have no chill button.