Members of the Bronx community and rap fans around the world are still reeling from the news of Lil Tjay (born Tione Jayden Merritt) being shot multiple times in New Jersey.
Fellow Bronx native French Montana expressed positive vibes toward Tjay after the shooting. On June 22, the Hip Hop veteran tweeted, “Pray for my lil bro Lil Tjay 🙏🏽.”
During a recent interview with SiriusXM’s Sway in the Morning, French Montana brought up street life in New York and the city’s mayor Eric Adams. Montana also addressed what happened to Tjay as part of his conversation with Sway Calloway and Heather B.
“Nowadays, they’re making the artist the drug dealer and the killer and everything. It’s sad for Hip Hop,” said French Montana.
He added, “In order for us to make a change, we have to embrace people like [Eric Adams] and people in the higher positions that can help see the vision and help these kids because we don’t have no help out here.”
The Montega project creator continued, “From Pop Smoke to Lil Tjay, look what happened this morning. It’s sad. We don’t got as many artists as it is. Probably like five artists in New York right now.”
French Montana Says He Tried To Sign Lil Tjay
French Montana went on to talk about meeting Mayor Eric Adams at a party with Jennifer Lopez. Additionally, the Morocco-born recording artist recalled nearly adding Lil Tjay to his Coke Boy Records label at one point.
“I was trying to sign Lil Tjay when he first came out. So, we got a dope, dope relationship with him. I mean Tjay, he’s little bro. So, when I heard [about the shooting] this morning it just went right back to, ‘We need help as artists,'” stated French Montana.
Montega by rapper French Montana and producer Harry Fraud dropped today (June 24). The East Coast duo recruited Babyface Ray, EST Gee, Rick Ross, Benny The Butcher, Jadakiss, Quavo, and more as features for the project.
MONTEGA out now on all platforms 🌊@HarryFraud https://t.co/UqbYFnnoCA
— French Montana (@FrencHMonTanA) June 24, 2022