Biography
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Born
30 April 2001 (age 23)
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Born In
The Bronx, New York, New York, United States
Tione Kenyon Jayden Merritt (born April 30, 2001), known professionally as Lil Tjay, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter from New York City. Born and raised in the Bronx, his musical career began in 2017. He is best known for his singles "Brothers", "F.N", and "Calling My Phone" featuring 6lack, which peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. His debut studio album, True 2 Myself (2019), peaked at number five on the US Billboard 200.
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Influenced by his upbringing in the Bronx, Lil Tjay is a melodic rapper who frequently incorporates auto-tune in his songs. He has drawn comparisons to fellow New York rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he revealed that his biggest musical influences are Drake, Meek Mill, and Usher. In the same interview, Lil Tjay described his music as having a melodic sound when singing or rapping about his past struggles. Lil Tjay also credits his success to his year spent in prison, where he claims that his ability to write songs peaked. In Pitchfork's featured article on Lil Tjay, he is referred to as a "hip-hop heartthrob". Later in the interview, Lil Tjay explained that he is often called the "Bronx Justin Bieber" because of his sampling Justin Bieber's "Baby".
In 2017, Tjay began releasing music on SoundCloud. "Resume", one of his first songs, was released when Tjay was 16 years old, and quickly began spreading online. On March 10, 2018, Tjay competed and placed first at the Coast 2 Coast LIVE NYC All Ages Edition, where his performance gained the attention of a record label A&R who was in attendance to judge the showcase. Soon after, Tjay released the single "Brothers", which became his biggest song at the time and led to him signing with Columbia Records.
Within the first ten months of Lil Tjay's music career, he had released five tracks that recorded over one million plays on SoundCloud. "Brothers", "Resume", "Goat", and "Leaked" each accumulated tens of millions of streams. In July 2018, Lil Tjay worked with producer Cash Money AP to release "None of Your Love", which also amassed tens of millions of plays. Lil Tjay released his debut EP No Comparison at the end of 2018.
In January 2019, Tjay was featured on rapper Polo G's single "Pop Out", which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100. In July, he was featured on boy band PRETTYMUCH's "Lying". Later that year, he released an EP titled F.N; the project's lead single, "F.N", peaked at number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became his first solo charting song. Lil Tjay released his debut album True 2 Myself on October 11, 2019. It debuted and peaked at number 5 on the US Billboard 200. In December, he was featured on a remix of 24kGoldn's song "Valentino".
On February 12, 2021, Tjay released his highly anticipated single "Calling My Phone", with American singer 6lack, which was accompanied by a music video directed by Cam Busby. The song debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the highest-charting single of Tjay's career. Later that year, Tjay released his sophomore album “Destined 2 Win”, which debuted at #5 on the billboard 200 chart.
On June 22, 2022, Lil Tjay was shot seven times during an attempted robbery. “Beat the Odds” was released on August 26, 2022, which peaked at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The music video featured footage of Tjay in the hospital recovering from his gunshot wounds.
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