A SoundCloud rapper from South Texas dropped a single on YouTube on June 30, 2017. The song and its corresponding music video featured young Tay-K 47 dancing with handguns in front of his own wanted poster, and rapping about being on the run. It went viral instantly. Within a month, the song had found its way onto Billboard charts and had over 10 million views on YouTube alone. The kicker, though, is that the song was actually written while Tay-K was on the run. The sixteen year old had been a fugitive for three months, and was wanted for a murder committed in Texas. He was arrested by US Marshals in New Jersey the day the song was released. “The Race” has been canonized in rap history. The video has over 210 million streams on YouTube todate. Tay-K has been in prison the entire time. His wild popularity speaks to a moment in rap music where the allure of hyper violence leads both to young artists’ virality and demise — challenging the very possibility ethical consumption in our time.
