Lil Tjay
American rapper
Tione Jayden Merritt (IPA: [taj.oʊn d͡ʒeɪ.dən ˈmɛɹ.ɪt]; born April 30, 2001), known professionally as Lil Tjay ( TEE-jay), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence with his 2017 single "Resume", and signed with Columbia Records following the success of his 2018 single "Brothers", which received triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His guest appearance on Polo G's 2019 single, "Pop Out" marked his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100—peaking at number 11—while his own single, "F.N", became his first to do so as a lead artist. Each preceded the release of his debut studio album, True 2 Myself (2019), which peaked at number five on the Billboard 200.
His second studio album, Destined 2 Win (2021) was supported by the single "Calling My Phone" (with 6lack), which peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. His 2023 song "Gangsta Boo" (with Ice Spice) likewise entered the chart, and his third studio album, 222, was released in July of that year.
Early life
Merritt was born and raised in the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. He and two younger siblings were raised by a single mother in what was described as a "roomy" apartment. Merritt called himself the problematic child of the three children, as he would often get himself into petty robberies and school fights. At the age of 15, Merritt was arrested for a robbery and sentenced to a year at the youth detention center, where he would begin to write raps; they included one of his hit songs "Resume", which he released on SoundCloud.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Lil Tjay” as american rapper. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q61670761. VIAF identifies the subject as 156157342833210100008. The Library of Congress control number is no2019161756. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lil Tjay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.