Tom Merritt is an American hip-hop artist/rapper who is more popular by his stage name, ‘Lil TJAY.’ A native of New York, TJAY grew up not far from the birthplace of hip hop. However, his exposure to the history of the genre is minimal. TJAY had a turbulent childhood and spent much of his time getting into trouble and fighting with other boys. He also committed petty robberies. In 2016, he was sentenced to serve a year at a youth detention centre in New York for a robbery. After being released in 2017, TJAY began frequenting a recording studio. He had previously made a couple of songs using his own personal instruments. On the first visit to the studio, he recorded ‘Resume’. It garnered positive reviews and led to the release of more tracks and a record deal with Columbia Records. In December 2018, TJAY put out his first extended play, ‘No Comparison’. According to an interview published on ‘Pitchfork,’ TJAY is presently working on his first studio album.

Lil Tjay has accumulated 1.5 million subscribers on his Youtube channel. He has a healthy fan base on Soundcloud, with more than 160 thousand subscribers and 50 million spins. Besides, two of his popular tracks boast 76 million views, his track titled “Resume” has gathered 19 million views and an audio track titled “Hold on” has garnered 14 million views as of April 2020.

Some of his tracks on Youtube boast millions of streams. Both of his tracks, titled “Brothers” and ‘F.N (official video)” has amassed 76 million views. He spent about three months in the youth detention centre in 2016 after he was convicted for fights and robbery. During those dark times, he confronted death but he is not dead.