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On Wednesday, August 9, Lil Tay, a 14-year-old YouTube and Instagram influencer and rapper reportedly passed away tragically and suddenly. The news was shared on her Instagram account @liltay by her family members and sent shockwaves across the internet. The post mentioned that Lil Tay’s older half-brother Jason also passed away.
Whether the deaths happened together or separately remains unknown. Even the place where she died is under speculation. The cause of her demise is currently under investigation, as reported by her family on the Instagram post. It read as follows:
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the devastating news of our beloved Claire’s [Lil Tay’s real name] sudden and tragic passing. We have no words to express the unbearable loss and indescribable pain.”
For those unaware, Lil Tay became a viral sensation at the age of nine, when her YouTube videos revealing her luxurious lifestyle, cursing, flexing, and picking random fights on the internet with other social media personalities started trending in March 2018.
However, she hadn’t posted anything since late that year, around the time she was court-ordered to live with her father (after her parent’s divorce and custody battle), who she claimed was allegedly abusive and controlling.
Lil Tay’s net worth is presumed to be over $1 billion as per her past claims
Born Claire Hope, Lil Tay grew up in Atlanta where she was completely broke and lived with her realtor mother Angela Tian. In fact, she went on record to say how she worked hard and even moved bricks, to fuel her rap and flex career and shift to Los Angeles in 2017.
She rose to fame in March 2018 by releasing her solo rap number Money Way followed by doing rap skits on Instagram where she trash-talked and threw stacks of cash. She flaunted her luxurious lifestyle, such as driving exotic cars, wearing designer clothes and jewelry, living in a mansion, bathing in a jacuzzi, eating at fancy restaurants, visiting spas, and indulging in luxury travel.
However, when her mother lost her job for helping her daughter create “profanity-laden videos” as deemed by her employer Pacific Place Group, Lil Tay was court-ordered to live with her lawyer father Christopher John Hope in Vancouver.
Since then, Lil Tay’s social media presence began to fizzle out as her absentee father reportedly banned her from the internet. In fact, in October 2018, he told Hollywood Life,
“When my daughter’s social media began to go viral this year, I disagreed with most of the social media activity. I took legal steps to stop things which I felt were dangerous to her physical and mental health and to her future.”
He also added how he felt that a nine-year-old should not indulge in such a lifestyle and drop out of school (reportedly from Harvard) so that she could make money.
But he had promised that when his daughter was of a suitable age, he would allow her to return to the spotlight under a rebranded image approved by him.
But by then, in less than a year, Lil Tay already earned a celebrity status with more than a billion dollars to her name as she herself revealed in an interview with Jake Paul and producer Rick Rubin as part of Good Morning America.
“People think it’s funny, I guess, 'cause I’m 9 years old and I’ve accomplished so much. I’m the youngest flexer. I can do anything I like. If they don’t believe me, I don’t care,” she stated.
Besides claiming that she “makes billions” and could afford to “make an entire new country,” she also amassed more than 3.4 million Instagram followers and over 220,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel; both of which further helped her gain fame and fortune.
Despite her claims, the website coed.com estimated that her net worth was just over $500,000 as of 2019.
According to Page Six, she was a ballet dancer associated with the Royal Ballet Academy and practiced dance since the age of four. She also loved reading Chinese (her mother was a native), singing, playing the piano, skating, swimming, and art, and used all her talents to earn her own money.
Her final social media post was on Instagram in July 2018 in which she mourned the tragic passing of rapper XXXTentacion, who was shot and killed in 2018. In the post, she shared a screenshot of her FaceTiming the late rapper and tagging him as a “father figure” and remembered how he was there for her when nobody else was.
However, in April 2021, a cryptic message appeared on Lil Tay’s Instagram Story that read:
“We have bad news about Tay”
However, it was soon taken down. Her brother Jason Tian, who was also involved in Lil Tay’s short-lived career had created a GoFundMe fundraiser in 2021 alleging that her father Christopher, and stepmother Hanee physically and mentally abused her, robbing her of all fortune.
He urged Tay’s fans to donate and help him rescue his sister and fund the court battle.
Her family asked for privacy during the time of bereavement on the Instagram post sharing her untimely death news and said her memories will forever remain in their hearts and her absence left an irreplaceable void.
Eminem’s 2018 song Killshot mentioned the name of Tay and it was believed that she earned a percentage of the profits from the acclaimed hip-hop artist.
