Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
This Teen Rapper in in Prison Now - The Tay-K Story
30 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What events led to Tay-K's rise as a rapper?
So this teenage rapper ends up getting famous for a terrible reason. Now the guy calls himself Tay-K, and Tay-K is 16 when this story starts and he's living in Texas, and Bro is a small-time rapper who is starting to get a following. He mostly uploads his stuff to SoundCloud and YouTube, it's kind of that thing. But rap isn't the only thing Tay-K's doing.
On the side, he and his friends make money by straight up robbing people. In fact, according to what I read, they don't have jobs, they just rap and rob people. So one day in 2016, one of these robberies goes wrong. Because one of Tay-K's friends comes up with a plan to make them all a bit of money. So his friend has a boyfriend, this guy, Zachary.
And I guess she's not really into her boyfriend all that much, because she believes that Zachary has money and drugs stashed in his apartment, and she wants to rob him. And so she goes to Tay-K and his friends, and she suggests that they go to Zachary's place and steal whatever he's got. And I guess Tay-K and his friends are like, alright.
So her plan is for she and two of her female friends to go over to Zachary's apartment beforehand, then once Tay-K and the guys arrive, the three girls will unlock the door and let them in. Then they'll grab whatever cash and drugs they can find, and they'll leave. Sounds easy enough. What could possibly go wrong? So the day of the robbery finally comes.
And as planned, Takehei and three of his friends put on masks and they pull up to Zachary's apartment. And one of the girls lets them in. And as they enter, they start yelling, everyone on the floor, put your hands up! And Zachary's there and he does. But it turns out that there are two other people there with him. Zachary's roommate and Zachary's roommate's girlfriend.
So Tay-K and his friends continue the robbery. And they're looking around the apartment for money and drugs and stuff. But unfortunately for them, they don't find anything. There's no big stash of money or drugs as they thought there would be. So now they're frustrated. And that is when one of Tay-K's friends points a gun at Zachary's roommate.
And I don't know if it's intentional or what, but blam! He shoots the guy in the stomach. And this unfortunately kills him.
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Chapter 2: How did Tay-K's involvement in a robbery escalate into murder?
Meanwhile, one of the other goons shoots Zachary in the shoulder. Luckily, he survives. Then, Tay-K and his friends and the girls all realize that this robbery has gotten out of hand, so they all flee the scene. Now, eventually, police show up, and they start investigating, and pretty quickly, they identify the people that were involved.
And so, bam, they track down and arrest Tay-K and all of his friends. And all of them are charged with the murder of Zachary's roommate. Now, while waiting on his trial, Tay-K actually gets out of jail, and he's placed on house arrest, and he has to wear one of those ankle monitors. So, several months go by, and it's now 2017.
And Tay-K, he's still chilling at home on house arrest, and while he's there, he's been recording some new music and releasing it on his SoundCloud. But honestly, the dude is starting to get bored. I mean, he's been stuck at home for months, and bro isn't about that life. And he decides it's time to go on the run.
So he gets on Twitter, and he tweets, Then he cuts off his ankle monitor, and he leaves the house. After that, he goes and he meets up with one of his friends, this kid, Jalen. And Jalen is also on house arrest. And Jalen cuts off his ankle monitor too. And together, the two of them come up with a plan to flee to San Antonio. But there's a problem. They don't have any money.
They don't have jobs. Also, now they're officially fugitives. So it's not like they can go out and get a job or something. So Tay-K and Jalen, they go back to doing what they do best. Robbing people. And that is where the story gets really wild. So Tay-K and Jalen end up driving three hours away to San Antonio. And while they're there, they come across this photographer on Instagram.
His name's Mark. So Tay-K and Jalen decide that they're gonna rob Mark. They're gonna trick him into meeting up and then they're gonna steal his camera and any money he has. So Jalen messages Mark and he tells him that they're interested in his photography services. And they say they wanna do a photo shoot. And Mark agrees to meet up.
So Tay-K, Jalen, and some other goons they're with, they go and they pick up Mark to go do this photo shoot. Once Mark is in the car, they're driving along and suddenly, boom, Tay-K's goons pull out guns and they force Mark to hand over his camera. So Mark hands over his camera and pow, one of them pistol whips him. Then they pull over and they shove him out of the car.
Then they apparently try to run him over with the car. And I guess Mark doesn't want to let this go. I mean, his camera is his livelihood. He's not about to let these guys take it. So he jumps onto the hood of the car, trying to stop them, and this pisses Tay-K off.
So he takes a gun, he leans out of the car, and blam, he shoots Mark.
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