Lil Tay, the teen rapper who died on the internet, is alive

Rapper Lil Tay appears to be alive. This news comes a day after rumors and uncertainty of her death ran rife. Following speculations of her death which stemmed from a post shared to her Instagram on August 9, TMZ reported that the teen rapper's family provided a statement saying that she is indeed alive. 

The statement read: "I want to make it clear that my brother and I are safe and alive, but I’m completely heartbroken, and struggling to even find the right words to say. It’s been a very traumatizing 24 hours. All day yesterday, I was bombarded with endless heartbreaking and tearful phone calls from loved ones all while trying to sort out this mess."

The original post reporting her death, which has now been deleted, also reported that her brother had died. People online expressed doubt about its accuracy, as the rapper’s father and former manager (Henry Tsang) did not confirm her death. Tsang told the Daily Beast, “Given the complexities of the current circumstances, I am at a point where I cannot definitively confirm or dismiss the legitimacy of the statement issued by the family.” 

Several police departments as well, contacted by media outlets, did not have any reports of her death. Insider reported that the Vancouver Police Department had no reports of her death, and the Los Angeles Police Department said that it also has “no information on an investigation into the death of anyone named Claire Hope.”

Lil Tay’s statement continued with "My Instagram account was compromised by a 3rd party and used to spread jarring misinformation and rumors regarding me, to the point that even my name was wrong," The statement also clarified that her legal name is Tay Tian, not Claire Hope, as had been widely used in past press coverage of her.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Tay had moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, and first entered the public eye at the age of 9 in 2018, when videos of her went viral. She could be seen cursing, flaunting expensive watches and money. Over the course of her short presence online, she garnered over 3 million followers on Instagram, where she posted quite  infrequently. Her most recent post was in June 2018, dedicated to the late rapper XXXTentacion, who was shot near a motorcycle dealership in Florida. Her post mentions that she considered him a “father figure.” 

In 2019 Tian gave an interview to the Daily Beast alongside her mother. This came a year after posts were shared on her Instagram claiming to have "bad news about Tay." In the interview she said she was “in a bad situation" with her father and spoke about a custody battle, relocating to Vancouver to live with her dad and being homeschooled.

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