Lil Tjay Addresses Shooting on New Single ‘Beat the Odds’

Update, Friday, August 26: After addressing his shooting on Instagram, Lil Tjay dropped “Beat the Odds,” his first song since being shot. On it, he raps about his recovery, reiterating that he was hit seven times. “I know they mad wishin’ they had finished me entirely” he says in one line. In another: “How the fuck I’m livin’? All these niggas wan’ fry me.” The song comes with a music video that sees Tjay rapping while in a wheelchair in a hospital, before later getting up to walk on his own. The single follows April’s “Goin Up,” ahead of his to-be-released project, Strictly4MyFans.

Original story published August 24 follows.

Lil Tjay’s health has been questionable since June, when the 21-year-old rapper was hospitalized after a shooting, underwent emergency surgery, and was reportedly unconscious at one point. Now he’s opening up about the incident in his first public statement. Lil Tjay (born Tione Jayden Merritt) posted a video on Instagram in which he wears a neck brace and says he sustained “seven shots. It was tough, you know. Most people don’t survive it, but I’m here. I’m here for a reason.” He was shot in Edgewater, New Jersey, in an alleged attempted armed robbery alongside his associate Antoine Boyd. A suspect, Mohamed Konate, was later arrested and charged with multiple counts of attempted murder and armed robbery, among other offenses. In the new video, Lil Tjay promises new music, saying, “We’re going to come back stronger than ever.”