Lil Tay custody battle: Asian child rapper ‘ordered to live with father in Canada’

Lil Tay, the Asian child rapper who vanished from the internet after her foul-mouthed videos made her a viral star, has reportedly been ordered to live with her father in Canada after her Chinese mother lost custody of the youngster.

On Sunday, Lil Tay’s Instagram account sprang back to life after being scrubbed of all content in June.

Did Lil Tay just get her mum fired? Angela Tian let go by realty firm

A series of posts by someone claiming to be a “former associate” of the young rapper said she had been living with her father – identified as Christopher John Hope – after he “handed her a court order forcing her to go to his home in Canada”.

Lil Tay’s mother, Angela Tian, was subjected to intense criticism for allowing her then nine-year-old daughter to post videos showing her throwing around wads of cash, posing in luxury cars and homes, and bragging about selling drugs. The videos racked up millions of views, but also sparked concerns that the young rapper was being exploited by her mother.

In several of her viral videos, Lil Tay claimed to be a Los Angeles gangster kingpin commanding an army of “shooters” from her mansion in the Hollywood Hills, but an investigation by the South China Morning Post revealed that in fact she lived in a flat in downtown Vancouver.

Despite Lil Tay’s claim to be a “Harvard drop-out”, reports revealed that she was being home-schooled and that the rapper (whose real name remains unknown) and her mother had moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles in May to further the career of the young celebrity.

In June Lil Tay’s controversial videos were all removed from her Instagram account. Posts that started appearing on the page on Sunday said this was done because she had been forced to live with her father in South Surrey, British Columbia, and was banned from using social media.

One video post showing Lil Tay in tears claimed the court order had required the youngster to be at Hope’s home in Canada by June 3, or otherwise be at risk of being placed in foster care.

Tagging all of the posts with the hashtag #FreeLilTay, the “former associate” wrote in one caption: “Tay has big dreams and aspirations that she was willing to work hard to achieve.

“For the first time in her life she was happy, she felt like she was on top of the world, but then out of nowhere Christopher John Hope attempted to come back to her life only to forcefully try and drag her down by bringing her back into the dark state that he was once responsible for putting her into.”