18-year-old rapper from the Bronx releases his first ever album

Releasing just singles since 2017, Tione Dalyan Merritt, better known as Lil Tjay, dropped his first album, “True 2 Myself.” “Staying true to yourself is just like, always making the decision feel is best for you,” Merritt mentioned in his documentary about the album release. The rapper, brand new to the music industry, brings a hype vibe.

The 17 song album contained songs from his recent extended play records and remixes of them. Containing features with Rileyy Lanez, Jay Critch, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, and Lil Wayne, Merritt brings his “True 2 Myself” album together.

“Most of the songs are like a letter to myself,” Meritt said.

The rapper uses his own music to get through things and this is what he brought on his album, to not only help himself, but his fans too. He mentions that everything he raps about is mostly about his past experiences and that is how he got through things, was to rap about it. Merritt started rapping at age 14 and he was rapping about his personal life, not to become famous, but to get through the issues he was having. In his song “Hold On,” he tells a story of just waiting and things will get better, just hold on. In “Post To Be,” he raps about getting cheated on and it brings the personal aspect to his album. He is “headed to the top” with his song “Top of My Game” and doesn’t expect anything to stop him. He ends his album off with “No Escape” where he shows that where he grew up, there wasn’t an escape, but he made it out with the outlet of music. 

The album was put together very well. Starting off with such a good song, “One Take,” Merritt and his team produced songs that have lyrics that can relate to anyone and how they are feeling. The only part I didn’t really like about the album is that he kept most of his singles on when people were expecting an album of brand new songs. The remix of “Leaked” with Lil Wayne and “Brothers” with Lil Durk made that factor better by introducing something new to the same songs. “Goat” and “One Take” had to be my favorites because they were hype and had lyrics that meant something that I could relate to.

Merritt is selling out shows and performing on big stages such as the giant music festival, Rolling Loud. He makes sure to have a good time while making his music and performing it for his fans. Being only 18 years old, Merritt has a lot in store for him and with his first album being a hit, the outcome is limitless for him.

“Whatever it is you want to do, just make sure to put your 100% all in it and anything is possible,” Merritt said as a tribute to his fans.