Taymore Travon McIntyre, more commonly known as Tay-K, is a 21 year old rapper from Long Beach California. Tay-K took the internet by storm in 2017 at just the age of 17. Tay-K is now serving a 55 year sentence and his career has already come to an end. Tay-K is most commonly known for his track called “The Race.” This track is a very in depth story which explains one of the most iconic moments hip-hop has ever seen and this is shown through all of the extremely vulgar lyrics used in this track. This song has just around 300 million streams on Spotify, another 110 million streams on the official remixed version (features Young Nudy and 21 Savage), and he has another 230 million views and 2 million likes on the official music video. This track was extremely viral during this time and every rapper was saying “Free Tay-K” and creating remixes to this viral track. The Race was later certified Platinum and it showcased the true savagery of this young man, where Tay-K was shown in his music video dancing casually in front of his own wanted sign.  

Taymor McIntyre was just 16 years old in 2016 when one crime would end up changing his life forever. Tay-K was charged with his role in a home invasion in Tarrant County, Texas. This home invasion left Ethan Walker who was just 21 years old, dead while his home was invaded while he was innocently playing video games in his living room. Another man by the name of Zachary Beloate was shot in this event, however, managed to survive. There were an additional two aggravated robberies due to the two other victims in the house during the time of the invasion. 

Shortly after, Tay-K was placed on house arrest until his trial where he would be tried as an adult. This caused some bubbling for Tay-K’s name and there were even rumors that he could face the death penalty (later proven to be false). Tay-K cut off his ankle monitor and traveled all the way to New Jersey from Texas. This brought him as much time as he could from the police. Tay-K stayed quiet and recorded music in smaller cities on the way to New Jersey. He was on the run for an incredible 30 days and in this time he recorded his only and very well known album “#SantanaWorld.” This album is named after Tay-K’s childhood friend, Santana Sage who shot and killed an innocent college female and he will face 44 years in prison. Tay-K was gaining a lot of attention from small social media tactics from doing savage things like taking pictures in front of his wanted posters and from his tweets. People should have looked out for Tay-K but they were focused on making as much profit as possible which ended up making things a lot worse for the young rapper.

On June 30th, 2017, Tay-K’s life would change forever. He would release a tweet while in New Jersey, which said, “FEDS CAN’T HOLD ME BACK HERE IT GO TAY-K-THE RACE MUSIC VIDEO #FREETAYK #FREESANTANA #FREEPIMPYZ.” Attached to the tweet was a track titled, “The Race.” This video blew up instantly due to the craziness of Tay-K and the song being overall very well put together. Tay-K was arrested on the same day he posted that tweet. The music video showed Tay-K at a house toting guns, throwing up gang signs, and smoking with a bunch of other people. Tay-K was outside in the open and not afraid to stay quiet as if he was not highly wanted for the past 3 months. He was standing in front of his own wanted poster and mocking the police. Tay-K even casually left the house in the last scene of the music video in an expensive Corvette. 

Tay-K was quickly arrested and his court case arrived. Surprisingly, he had everyone in the music industry cheering for his success and rooting for him, due to the amazing album he released on the run and the unimaginable story behind it. Tay-K went fully viral and became a household name. He was getting co-signed by the biggest names in the industry like Tyga and had people like Travis Scott posting his lyrics. Everyone was remixing the beat used for “The Race” which is now a staple in the industry on its own. Tay-K was sentenced for 55 years in jail as well as a $21,000 fine. Unfortunately, this talented rapper’s career would end at just 17 years old. This era was extremely interesting to watch, although he committed some horrific crimes. Aggravated robbery (x3) (July 2019), murder (July 2019),  capital murder, aggravated robbery, and possession of a prohibited item in a correctional facility is nothing to be taken lightly and hopefully the families involved in the crimes are recovering as time passes by.

As much as Tay-K’s music is loved by so many people, he definitely deserves to be locked up for his horrible actions. Tay-K has had a long history of crime and his first rap group which started his career, named The Daytona Boyz had Tay-K already tied to a murder case at just the age of 15 when Eric Johnson, who was a former marine, more commonly known as “Santana Sage,” shot the innocent college student. Tay-K clearly has not learned his lesson after having many troubles with the law for his entire teenage years. In jail, he is not doing much better at all and it does not seem likely that his sentence will be cut any shorter. He started his own gang in jail called, “The Rugrats.” The rules in the gang are; No snitching, no stealing from Rugrats, no disobeying higher ranking members, and no harming children, unless necessary. The future of Tay-K and releasing music seems slim but hopefully fans will one day hear new recorded music from jail or some form of unreleased music. Unfortunately, due to his actions, this seems out of the question at the moment.

Sources:

 “Tay-K Sentenced to 55 Years in Prison for Murder Charge Referenced on His Viral Hit ‘The Race.’” Genius, genius.com/a/tay-k-sentenced-to-55-years-in-prison-for-murder-charge-referenced-on-his-viral-hit-the-race. 

Ross, Trap Lore, director. YouTube, YouTube, 12 Dec. 2019, youtube.com/watch?v=Gxs1aRrV9hA. Accessed 10 June 2022.