After Lil TJay was shot, 50 Cent reached out to the young artist with words of encouragement.
During an interview with Rolling Stone, the 21-year-old entertainer recalled the moment he was shot, his time in the hospital, and how he “almost caught a stroke” from a bullet fragment.
“I couldn’t move. It was mad f**kin’ cold in the blankets. Thirty ice packs and I can’t move. I’m already anemic. I was so cold when my temperature was so high,” the Bronx native expressed. “I was scared to go back to sleep. I could feel the bullet, too. She’s touching my neck, and I could feel a bullet, and I’m like, ‘Yo, this is crazy.’ All I’m thinking is, ‘What? I got a story to tell.‘”
He recalled how some of Hip-Hop’s OGs reached out to him with love. TJay specifically recalled Diddy and 50 showing compassion, with the latter even giving him advice.
“Every artist needs pain or something to feed off of,” the Destined 2 Win singer remembered Fif reassuring him. “This right here, you shake this sh*t off. You got the length for greatness. You going to be bigger than ever.”
50 Cent, much like Lil TJay, suffered from a near-fatal shooting in 2000, being shot nine times. However, the outspoken emcee survived and channeled the traumatic experience and anger into his music to craft his debut classic album, Get Rich Or Die Tryin’.
The artist, née Tione Jayden Merritt, was shot at 14 The Promenade, an NJ shopping plaza. Merritt underwent emergency surgery to treat his injuries and later revealed that he had been shot seven times.
“I just want to say thanks for the love, thanks for the support, I’ve been looking at the DMs,” Tjay said in the Instagram clip, wearing a neck brace. “Seven shots, it was tough, you know? Most people don’t survive it, but I’m here for a reason. New music is coming soon, we’re going to come back stronger than ever. I love y’all.”
