Tione “Lil Tjay” Merritt suffered multiple gunshot wounds during an alleged robbery attempt in June. Since then, the Bronx rapper has recovered enough to release new music.
Lil Tjay released the official “Beat the Odds” music video on August 26. The visuals have collected over 11 million views since its YouTube premiere.
In the song, Tjay raps about his experience of being shot and the fallout from the violent incident. The 21-year-old New Yorker filmed the music video as he lay in a hospital bed.
“Beat the Odds” joins a Lil Tjay catalog that includes “Pop Out” with Polo G, “F.N,” “Hold On,” “Calling My Phone” with 6lack, and “Headshot” with Polo G and Fivio Foreign.
At one point, rumors of Lil Tjay being paralyzed from the shooting spread across the internet. He responded to the speculation with a message on social media.
“The blogs said I was paralyzed and couldn’t walk. But I started walking in a week after surgery. I beat the odds,” wrote Tjay on TikTok.
“Beat the Odds” plays in the background of the 16-second TikTok post. More than 680,000 users like Lil Tjay’s video. He captioned the clip, “Grateful for this sh*t 🙏🏽.”
The Columbia recording artist previously called out “the blogs” for supposedly reporting that he lost his voice. Tjay reacted to that gossip by claiming he recorded “Beat the Odds” two weeks after waking up from being unconscious.
@liltjay Grateful for this sh*t 🙏🏽
♬ Beat the Odds – Lil Tjay