Aug. 10 (UPI) — Social media rapper Lil Tay Thursday said in a statement that reports of her death are not true. According to a TMZ exclusive report, she’s alive and the death report came from a compromised Instagram account. “I want to make it clear that my brother and I are safe and alive, but I’m completely heartbroken, and struggling to even find the right words to say,” Lil Tay, 14, said in the statement given to TMZ by the teen’s family. ” It’s been a very traumatizing 24 hours. All day yesterday, I was bombarded with endless heartbreaking and tearful phone calls from loved ones all while trying to sort out this mess.”
According to that statement, her Instagram account was “compromised by a 3rd party and used to spread jarring misinformation and rumors regarding me, to the point that even my name was wrong. My legal name is Tay Tian, not ‘Claire Hope.'”
The post that announced her death, which asked for privacy for the family as the circumstances into the siblings’ deaths were under investigation, already had received more than 1 million likes from users.
Compounding matters, the artist’s management team erroneously confirmed her death to Variety and USA Today on Wednesday.
But People.com quoted the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner as saying they had no record of the star’s death and her father Christopher Hope declined to comment.
LIl Tay became known for rap videos and collaborations with Chief Keef and XXXTentacion. A 2018 docu-series about her was called Life With Lil Tay.