UPDATE: Lil Tay is reportedly alive, as her family revealed in a statement to TMZ that her Instagram had been hacked. Her managers confirmed her death to Variety on Wednesday, confirming a message made on her Instagram, which has since been removed.
PREVIOUSLY: Claire Hope, the Canadian pre-teen online rapper known as Lil Tay, died, her management confirmed to Variety in a statement.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the devastating news of our beloved Claire’s sudden and tragic passing,” Hope’s family stated on Lil Tay’s Instagram page, which has 3.3 million followers. “There are no words to describe our unbearable loss and indescribable pain.” This result was completely unexpected and has left us all stunned. Her brother’s loss deepens our grief in unfathomable ways.We respectfully request privacy at this time of great grief, since the circumstances behind Claire and her brother’s deaths are still being investigated. Claire will live on in our hearts forever, her death leaving an indescribable void in the lives of those who knew and loved her.”
Lil Tay’s latest Instagram post was in June of 2018.
Lil Tay, a 9-year-old social media personality, went viral. She rose to prominence as the self-proclaimed “youngest flexer of the century,” thanks to her expletive-filled Instagram videos showing a wealthy hip-hop lifestyle. In one video, she boasted about purchasing a $200,000 sports car despite not having a driver’s licence. She states in another video, recorded from a vantage point in Beverly Hills, “I run L.A.” Lil Tay has been associated to well-known rappers like Chief Keef and XXXTentacion., whom she referred to as a “father figure” in an Instagram post in 2018. She was chastised for using the N-word and afterwards apologised to people she had “offended.” In 2018, she appeared in a three-part docuseries chronicling her ascent to prominence titled “Life With Lil Tay.”
Lil Tay vanished from the internet five years ago, sparking a custody fight between her parents, while alarming rumours about her family circumstances and safety surfaced online. Lil Tay’s Instagram was wiped clean in June 2018, and the words “help me” were put on her story.
A few months later, a number of abuse allegations against her father, Christopher Hope, were allegedly published to Lil Tay’s Instagram in an alleged Instagram hack. According to the accusations, Hope had court-ordered Lil Tay’s return to Canada in order to profit from her earnings. In a 2018 interview with The Daily Beast, Lil Tay’s manager at the time, Harry Tsang, said the charges were manufactured.
Lil Tay told The Daily Beast over the phone, “Right now I’m in a bad situation and I don’t want to talk about these things,” adding that her father had “”I filed something with the court, and the court ordered us to return here, and he said I was in danger and stuff.”
“He was threatening to arrest — to have my mum arrested if we didn’t go back,” she claimed of Hope. I hadn’t seen him in some years. He hadn’t seen me in so long that it’s obvious he only came back for the money.”
This narrative is currently in the works.
