Lil Tjay

While in prison on robbery charges, New York rapper Lil Tjay found the motivation to get through his sentence by writing lyrics. Upon his release in 2017, Tjay, still just a teenager, began recording his songs and posting them online. Almost overnight, several tracks took off and were being streamed in the millions, gaining the rapper massive attention for his often-downcast songs that combined vocal hooks and rhymes about hardship written while he was in jail.

Bronx rapper Lil Tjay's first tracks showed up online at the very end of 2017. "Resume" was his first completely solo song and it went viral quickly, ultimately being streamed over 14 million times in a little over a year. He followed with multiple one-off tracks over the course of 2018, with many of them selling/streaming by the millions. Self-released tracks like "Brothers," "Goat," "None of Your Love," and "Leaked" all gained serious traction and quickly drew the attention of major labels hoping to sign the rapper. He inked a deal with Columbia and the label released the five-song EP No Comparison at the tail-end of 2018. ~ Fred Thomas