Five years after breaking the internet with her foul-mouthed “flexing,” Lil Tay is back with a pop single, an accompanying music video and much-awaited answers for her controversial disappearance.
What’s up: Lil Tay, now 14, dropped her debut pop song “Sucker 4 Green” on Saturday, along with a music video that has raked in 2.6 million views on YouTube. She also ran a livestream on Instagram to explain her inactivity in the last five years.
Lil Tay’s return comes weeks after her hacked Instagram account announced that she and her brother had died. Last week, a Story posted by the account blamed her father, Christopher Hope, as responsible for the death hoax.
Hope has denied the allegation in a statement to TMZ. He threatened legal action against whoever was responsible for the post, as well as “anyone repeating the completely false and libelous accusation within it.”
Why she disappeared: On her Instagram Live, Lil Tay claimed that while she was earning fame five years ago, her “abusive absentee father” returned to her life to “take control over my career and my money.” She said Hope started a legal case to silence her and gain control over her finances.
Alleged inappropriate sexual behavior: Lil Tay accused Hope of “inappropriate sexual behavior,” alleging that he brought home random women “all the time” and “hooked up” with them in front of her. She said most of them were Asian women because he had an Asian fetish.
Lil Tay named one of the women as Hanee Hope, whom she said is her father’s current wife. She described Hanee as a “career scammer” from the Philippines and showed a purported online post from one of her alleged victims.
Alleged physical abuse: Hanee eventually entered their life and began to abuse her alongside her father, Lil Tay said. Aside from inappropriate sexual behavior, she accused them of constant physical abuse, saying Hanee took out her anger on her and that even her son “caught onto it” and abused her too.
Additionally, Lil Tay alleged that she was forced to watch horror movies, fed rotten or parasitic food and deprived of proper clothing. Meanwhile, she said Hanee was provided with designer bags, clothing, shoes and luxury travels.
Alleged history of abuse: Lil Tay said the abuse against her did not happen suddenly. She said her father — who allegedly still owes $250,000 in child support — had abused their family before.
“I witnessed him shoving my mom into walls and punching her. And when my brother — he was a kid at the time too — when he tried to go help my mom, he was screaming for help, he [Hope] shoved him to the f*cking floor, kneeled on his back…My mom was screaming and crying. I cannot forget those memories.”
Alleged racism: Lil Tay also accused Hope of being “racist as f*ck.” She said that while Hope was trying to win custody of her, he argued that her mother was letting her associate with Black and Hispanic people in the entertainment industry.
“He [Hope] said they were going to get me into drugs, steal my money or exploit me. He hates Black and Hispanic people. That was one of his arguments on why I shouldn’t be in the entertainment industry. In reality, we all know that was a lie anyway because he wanted me to be there [entertainment] so he could take my money.”
Debunking rumors: In her livestream, Lil Tay also took the opportunity to clarify rumors that circulated while she was famous.
- Lil Tay said her mother, Angela Tian, was not fired from her job as a real estate agent. Instead, she resigned.
- Lil Tay said she has never had a manager. She said anyone who has claimed to be one are “con artists exploiting my name for clout and industry credit.”
- Lil Tay accused her father of conspiring with a fake manager to plan her death hoax in order to promote a crypto coin. “Their plan was to fake my death and then promote the crypto coin, which by the way, the ‘manager’ admitted to,” she said, without elaborating.
Lil Tay confirmed that her mother had won the case. She concluded her livestream by acknowledging her constant support.
“She’s been there for me my entire life and we have both been abused by Christopher John Hope, my abusive absentee father. He is not the f*cking good guy here. He wanted control over my career and my money. I and my family had to go through even more years of abuse through the court system because of him.”
Angela Tian had already raised some of Lil Tay’s allegations in an exclusive interview with NextShark in 2018. Read her account
here.
