LOS ANGELES — After blowing up the internet in February with her foul mouth, a rising online star has now gone dark on social media.
The South China Morning Post reports that when trash talker Lil Tay burst into the Instagram scene, she did so flashing wads of cash, cussing up a storm, and calling herself the "youngest flexer of the century".
The 9-year-old's online persona capitalizes on shock value. She's a puny Asian kid who talks and acts like a stereotypical black gangsta on camera.
The girl made millions in Instagram followers thanks to publicized "beefs" with famous personalities like YouTuber RiceGum and rapper Bhad Bhabie, aka the cash me outside girl.
But in recent weeks, the schtick has seen some real-world consequences. Mom Angela Tian was fired from her real estate job in Vancouver, and 16-year-old brother Jason has been outed as the mastermind behind the whole production.
Rumor is, the luxury homes Tay had been filming in were agency listings, and a red Mercedes she claimed was hers was in fact owned by mommy's boss.
The controversial family has appeared on Good Morning America, and was most recently seen in a video that appeared to show Lil Tay smoking hookah. Her Instagram and YouTube were scrubbed of all content soon after, supposedly for rebranding.
Although well before the empire went dark, Lil Tay's Twitter tried to generate buzz by challenging people to act like the potty-mouthed preteen. Since then, the internet has seen a slew of flexing videos from people eager to hitch a ride on the Lil Tay wagon.
It's both interesting and more than a little disturbing to see what people make of this pint-sized human who may or may not know what she's gotten herself into.
Despite insisting on GMA that she manages herself, it's become abundantly clear that Tay isn't top dog behind the scenes.
More distressing is the realization that even if the girl were to leave the biz, the internet would simply move on to the next shameless act. That's just the nature of the beast.