Lil Tjay has taken his new music to the next level by sharing on social media that he has secured a verse with Jadakiss and that he linked up with Pharrell Williams for a studio session.
The Bronx rapper teased the collaboration with Jada in a since-deleted text message screenshot on Instagram. He then later uploaded pictures of himself speaking with Pharrell last year and sitting alongside him in a studio session. In the photos, the “Run it Up” can be seen wearing a neck brace after being shot last year.
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“Thanks for the knowledge and advice big bro..,”he said. “For those who don’t know while I was getting my mind right and healing this time last year I had a couple days to sit down w P and talk/vent about life nd everything you know wassup! But yea without you I would’ve never dug this deep and I appreciate u. Wanna thank u deeply.”
There’s no word on when the new music will be released but if Jadakiss and Pharrell are in the mix, it’s likely to be worth paying attention to.
Lil Tjay’s current updates come as he recently recognized the one year anniversary of being shot seven times and surviving the assault with the release of his new single, “June 22.”
The Bronx rapper (real name Tione Merritt) was shot at a Chipotle in the early hours of June 22, 2022, in Edgewater, NJ. Mohamed Konate, 27 — who was quickly apprehended by the police — also shot two of Tjay’s companions who were with him.
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On “June 22,” Tjay takes an introspective approach toward the moments leading up to the nearly-fatal shooting and in its accompanying music video, he relieves the tragedy.
“Opps know It’s crazy, they could vouch, now we out,” he raps on the song. “Meet the bros up in the whip and we in route/ I go to sleep, I wake up hearin’ someone following my car/ Bitch, who following my car?/ No one following my car.”
He was shot once in the neck, once in the arm, and five times in the torso. He was very close to death, but emergency surgery ultimately saved his life.
In a January interview with Rolling Stone, Tjay opened up about the scary ordeal and recalled a phone call he received from 50 Cent — who also famously survived a hail of bullets early in his career — while he was recovering in hospital.
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“Every artist needs pain or something to feed off of. This right here, you shake this shit off,” he recalled 50 telling him over the phone from a jet. “You got the length for greatness. You going to be bigger than ever.”