Tay-K
Arlington, Texas
Taymor Travon McIntyre (born June 16, 2000), known professionally as Tay-K, is an American rapper and songwriter from Arlington, Texas. He is best known for his hit song "The Race", which charted on the US Billboard Hot 100 following McIntyre's arrest in Elizabeth, New Jersey, after a nationwide manhunt for murder.
Tay-K started his rap career as part of the rap group Daytona Boyz alongside rappers Pimpyz and Santana Sage. The group released their first track "Drift" on audio distribution platform SoundCloud in December 2014. The group released a series of songs, barely getting attention as they performed at various parties attempting to create a presence in the local rap scenes.
Tay-K released his first solo song in mid-2015 titled "BIFF XANNEN" on his SoundCloud account. The song, along with Sly Cooper which was released in November 2015, garnered local attention within the Arlington rap scene. McIntyre's song "Megaman" was released on his SoundCloud on March 16, 2016 and along with several other songs Tay-K released, became popular after he was arrested on capital murder charges.
McIntyre released several songs while on the run from the police, including "The Race" which was recorded during Tay-K's stay in New Jersey and the music video was released on YouTube two weeks before his capture. The song debuted at number 70 on the US Billboard Hot 100 after a large hashtag campaign pursuing the release of McIntyre using the hashtag "#FREETAYK". It peaked at 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has over 100 million views on YouTube. "The Race” has been remixed by numerous artists including Tyga, Lil Yachty, Fetty Wap, among others.
On December 14, 2017, Tay-K re-released his mixtape Santana World with a remix of his single 'The Race' featuring vocals from rappers 21 Savage and Young Nudy. The mixtape was released with 88 Classic, an imprint under RCA Records, a division of Sony Music. "The Race" was certified platinum by the RIAA on January 19, 2018. On February 2, 2018, Tay-K's official Twitter account tweeted two pictures of McIntyre, the first time he had been seen since May 2017. The following day, the song "After You" was released on Tay-K's SoundCloud account.
In July of 2019, Tay-K was sentence to 55 years in prison for murder and is still awaiting trial on another case, his friendd Pimpyz was sentenced to 30 years in prison. It is unclear whether his label or management will be dropping a project of Tay-K's unreleased songs, but could be coming in 2020.