Claire Hope, the Canadian preteen internet rap artist also known under the alias Lil Tay, has passed away. Her management confirmed the news in an email to the magazine Variety.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the devastating news of our beloved Claire’s sudden and tragic passing,” Hope’s family announced on Lil ‘ Tay’s Instagram page, which has 3.3 million users. “We do not have words to express our grief, sadness, and grief beyond words. The news was unexpected, and we were all in a stupor. The passing of her brother brings an additional level of unimaginable sadness to our sorrow. At this time of great sadness, we request silence as we mourn the loss of a loved one, knowing that the circumstances that led to Claire and her brother’s death are currently being investigated. Claire will be forever in our hearts, and her loss leaves an indelible void that everyone who knew and loved her will feel.”
Lil Tay last posted to Instagram in June of 2018.
Lil Tay achieved viral fame as a young Social media influencer. Self-proclaimed as the “youngest flexer of the century,” she gained acclaim for her raunchy Instagram videos that depict extravagant hip-hop lifestyles. In one video, she boasted of purchasing a $200,000 sports car even though she didn’t have a driver’s license. In the other video, shot from the Beverly Hills viewpoint, she boasted, “I run L.A.” Lil Tay was associated with some famous rappers, including Chief Keef and XXX Tentacion, who she described as the “father figure” in a 2018 Instagram post. There was backlash after she used the N-word and then apologized to those she “offended.” In 2018 she was part of a three-episode documentary that chronicled her climb to the top of fame, titled “Life With Lil Tay.”
After disappearing from the web five years back, Lil Tay was launched into a custody fight between her parents, and some suspicious claims surfaced online regarding her family’s situation and security. In June of 2018, Lil Tay’s Instagram account was scrubbed clean, and the phrase “help me” was posted to her profile.
In a suspected Instagram hack, a couple of weeks later, a slew of allegations of abuse regarding her father, Christopher Hope, was posted on Lil Tay’s Instagram. The claims stated that a judge ordered Hope to bring Lil Tay back to Canada to earn her profits. The manager of Lil Tay, Harry Tsang, claimed the allegations were false in an interview in 2018 with The Daily Beast.
In a telephone interview with The Daily Beast alongside her mother, Angela Tian, Lil Tay declared, “Right now I’m in a bad situation, and I don’t want to talk about these things,” saying that her father “filed something to the court and the court ordered us to go back here, and he said that I was in danger and stuff.”
She told of Hope: “He was threatening to detain me and make my mom a suspect if we didn’t return… The truth is that I was not able to see him for several years. He never spoke to me then, and it’s clear he returned to get money.”
