Lil Tay Net Worth: The Foul-Mouthed 9-Year-Old Rapper Could Be On Her Way To Being A Millionaire

Lil Tay is a 9-year-old rapper famous for her obscenity-laced lyrics, her use of racial slurs, and her quickly growing social media following — and she may be on pace to be worth more than $1 million very soon.

The Vancouver, Canada, native has gotten a ton of buzz in recent weeks with her rap videos where she flaunts stacks of $100 bills and brags about buying expensive cars. As she grows her Instagram following to more than 1.7 million people, there has been much attention on how much money the 9-year-old could actually have. It is difficult to calculate the exact net worth for a third grader whose claim to fame are her gangster rap videos filled with references to drugs, money, and “flexing” her wealth. Coed pegged Lil Tay’s net worth at $1.5 million but did not offer much in the way of explanation for how that figure was calculated.

A better roadmap for Lil Tay’s net worth could be Danielle Bregoli, the archetype for foul-mouthed adolescent social media stars turned rappers. The “Cash me outside” girl amassed a huge following after her appearance on the Dr. Phil show about wayward teens, then used that attention to build her social media following and turn it into a career. Bregoli endorsed products on her Instagram page and branched out into rapping.

A report from the early weeks of her career noted that Bregoli made a significant sum simply from her online endorsements, making as much as $50,000 to $100,000 for Instagram posts featuring products. Lil Tay’s Instagram page has products sprinkled in as well, though it’s not clear whether she is actually endorsing any of them.

Bregoli continued to grow her net worth through appearances and later through a recording contract and appearances, a path Lil Tay has already followed.

While she may have the potential to make a fortune, Lil Tay is also generating plenty of criticism for her behavior. As the CBC noted, the dirty lyrics and references to sex and drugs have opened the door for criticism of all kinds for Lil Tay.

“The commentary that she inspires … are almost entirely negative,” said Anna Merlan, a reporter at Gizmodo, which owns Jezebel.“She gets racist abuse, she gets sexualized abuse, it’s pretty dark.”

Jezebel actually tracked down Lil Tay’s mother to Vancouver but hesitated at reporting for fear that they would identify Lil Tay. In another report this week, Lil Tay’s mother was identified as Angelia Tian, a Vancouver real estate agent who was fired from her job after management learned of her role with Lil Tay. Tian serves as Lil Tay’s manager.

While the exact net worth for Lil Tay may remain unclear, she and her mother appear to be adept at generating buzz and turning that into revenue.