Tione Jayden Merritt, professionally known as Lil Tjay (born April 30, 2001), is an American rapper and singer. He rose to stardom in 2018 with his song “Resume”, and signed to Columbia Records later that year.

Early Life of Lil Tjay

Lil Tjay was born in the Bronx borough of New York City. He was raised by a single mother and had two younger siblings in what was described as a “roomy” apartment. He called himself the problematic child out of the three, as he would often get himself into petty robberies and school fights. At the age of 15, Lil Tjay was arrested for one of his robberies and was sentenced for a year to a youth detention center where he would begin to write raps; they included one of his hit songs “Resume”, which he released on SoundCloud.

How he rose to stardom
2016–2019: Beginnings, record deal, and True 2 Myself
In 2016, Lil Tjay began releasing music on SoundCloud. “Resume”, one of his first songs, was released when Lil Tjay was 16 years old, and quickly began spreading online.

On March 10, 2018, Lil 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, Lil 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 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, he worked with producer CashMoneyAP 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, Lil Tjay was featured on fellow 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. Merritt 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”.
Polo G – Pop Out Ft Lil Tjay

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2020–2021: State of Emergency and Destined 2 Win
In early 2020, Lil Tjay reached the Billboard Hot 100 again with his single “20/20”, which peaked at number 94 on the chart. On May 8, 2020, he released the EP State of Emergency, which focused heavily on drill music, a popular subgenre in New York City. The seven-song EP included the track “Zoo York”, featuring Fivio Foreign and Pop Smoke, which peaked at number 65 on the Hot 100. In July, Merritt appeared on Pop Smoke’s debut posthumous album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon, on the track “Mood Swings”, which reached number 17 on the Hot 100. On August 11, Lil Tjay was included on XXL’s 2020 Freshman Class. In October, he hinted at a new project on Twitter.

On February 12, 2021, Lil Tjay released his single “Calling My Phone”, a collaboration with 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 his career. On March 19, Merritt released “Headshot”, a collaboration with Polo G and Fivio Foreign as the second single from his second studio album, Destined 2 Win, which was released on April 2, 2021. The album consists of twenty-one tracks.[18] On October 22, he released the lead single to his upcoming third studio album Not In The Mood with Fivio Foreign and Kay Flock. The single was teased in snippets using TikTok from September prior to its release.

2022–present: Strictly for My Fans and untitled third studio album
In early March 2022, He began teasing a new song titled “In My Head” which uses a sample of Iyaz’s “Replay”. It was eventually released on April 1, 2022.[20] On April 24, He released a freestyle “Lavish” on his YouTube channel. The following day, he announced his EP Strictly 4 My Fans.

Discography
Discography, Albums and EP’s

True 2 Myself (2019)
State of Emergency (2020)
Destined 2 Win (2021)

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