Claire Hope, a Canadian teen internet rapper known as Lil Tay. Image: Instagram/@liltay
(Editor’s note: This is an update of the story originally titled “Lil Tay, Canadian internet rapper, dead at 14” and published Aug. 10, 2023, at 1:11 p.m.)
A day after her death was announced and confirmed by her management to Variety, Lil Tay’s family reportedly released a statement saying she is alive and that her social media page was “compromised by a third party.”
The supposed “sudden and tragic passing” of 14-year-old Lil Tay was earlier announced through a now-deleted statement released on her verified Instagram page. Her family then told TMZ in a statement that the teen rapper and her brother are alive.
Lil Tay and her family said they were “bombarded with endless heartbreaking and tearful phone calls,” although it was not clear why rumors of her death were not immediately dismissed.
Meanwhile, Harry Tsang, Lil Tay’s former manager, said in a statement to ET that he could not “definitively confirm or dismiss the legitimacy of the statement issued by the family.”
“This situation calls for cautious consideration and respect for the sensitivities involved,” Tsang was quoted as saying.
Lil Tay rose to fame in 2018 after the then 9-year-old social media influencer went viral for showing off her “lavish hip-hop lifestyle.” The young internet personality is acquainted with American rappers Chief Keef and the late XXXTentacion, whom Lil Tay said in a 2018 Instagram post she considered a “father figure.”
Lil Tay was reportedly launched into a custody battle between her parents in 2018, as per Variety. In December of the same year, Lil Tay confessed that she was in a “bad situation” and that her father, whom she said she didn’t see “for so long,” had “filed something to the court.”
She added that her dad was “threatening to to have [her] mom arrested,” noting how it was “obvious” that he just came back “because he wants money.” These allegations were denied by Lil Tay’s dad as well as her manager at the time. /ra
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