Teejayx6 Many consider Teejayx6 the father of a hip-hop
subgenre known as scam rap.
In fact, it was TJ himself who coined the term.
Scam rap is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.
The songs explain how to commit credit card fraud and other scams to the listener.
People have been rapping about committing crimes for 40 years now, but scam raps get
oddly specific.
Some of TJ's songs basically sound like step-by-step tutorials for getting away with various scams.
In his song 'Swipe Story', he describes stealing PS4s from Walmart in detail.
He explains the process of making fake credit cards and lying to the cashier about why he's
buying all these PS4s.
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Who exactly is Teejayx6?
We don’t know much about the personal life of this enigmatic rapper, but you can find
a few facts online.
He's 20 years old, and his real name is Dallas Witherspoon.
However, that's according to his Wikipedia page.
Other sources refer to him as TJ Witherspoon and "name unknown."
He started making a name for himself in the Detroit rap scene in the late 2010s.
His first breakout song was appropriately titled 'Dark Web' and came out in 2019.
The Dark Web is a haven for scams and illegal internet activity, and in the song, TJ explains
how to use Tor and VPNs to access it.
Why would you look up some boring tutorial on youtube when this guy is rapping all the
info you need on this track?
Scam Rap There's more to the genre of scam rap than
just Teejayx6.
He's the biggest name in the scene, but there's also the Detroit-native ShittyBoyz.
They're a rap trio composed of StanWill, TR Dee, and Babytron.
It's unlikely that someone named Babytron, who is in a rap group called ShittyBoyz, would
have taken off in any other era of rap music.
Hip hop is in kind of a weird place right now.
The trio met each other in high school.
Like TeeJayx6, their songs explain different scams you can try for yourself, mostly online.
They usually rap over beats that heavily sample popular music from the 80s, like Michael Jackson
or video game soundtracks.
Their 2019 album was titled 'New Year Same Scams.'
From the Bottom TeeJayx6's rapper name isn’t just a random
combination of letters and numbers.
Nor is it his Gamertag.
It may seem like that's what some rappers are doing now, but there's a reason behind
TJ's stage name.
It references the MSR X6, a device used by scammers to clone credit cards.
It's a magnetic stripe card writer that you can plug right into your computer with the
USB cord.
Their website describes it as being ideal for people who often travel around.
They don't say that it's also perfect for credit card fraud, but it is.
So that's the origin of his name.
But what about the origin of his scamming and rap career?
In an interview with No Jumper, TeeJay said that he was truly born to scam.
He started scamming by selling people parsley and telling them it was marijuana in first
grade.
Both of his brothers have been involved with scams.
One of them even went to jail for bank fraud.
We guess he should have been listening to TJ's music, huh?
A fate that TJ has managed to avoid…
so far, at least.
TJ claims Detroit has a culture of scamming and that it's not uncommon for people to try
scamming their way through life.
TJ found out about bigger methods of fraud through the internet.
When he saw people making serious money online with scams, he got serious.
At 12-years-old, he started scamming adults on Twitter.
He would make a fake page for a warehouse and say it was a store.
Then, he put up a fake location and posted things for sale.
People sent him real money, but they would never get any real products like the Xboxes
or TVs that TJ claimed were for sale.
When the customers realized that there was no warehouse at all, it was too late.
Once he'd taken this scam as far as he could, he moved on to credit card fraud.
He was making so much money with his scams that he moved out of his mom's house and lived
on his own.
His mom, who he says was strict, probably didn't know what he was up to.
When he was 15, he started rapping about his experiences as a scammer.
The Hype Train While TJ may have been a talented scammer,
the same can't be said about his musical ability.
Not in the traditional sense, anyway.
He doesn't rap on the beat, most of his lines don't rhyme, and he doesn't have great production
or flow.
TJ got his own episode of the HBO documentary series 'Generation Hustle,' which covers how
different people hustled for money or fame.
TJ reveals that he got a 10 million dollar record deal in the show.
His manager also estimates that the scammer had made a million dollars before his rap
career even took off.
Clearly, his internet schemes were seriously profitable.
The Seriousness There has, however, been some skepticism about
TJ's origins.
Was he ever really a master scammer?
Wouldn't he have gotten into legal trouble by now if he was?
These are the tough questions that TJ fans must ask themselves.
Some people have said that TJ is playing a character.
He never really lived the scam life, and instead, it's just a rap persona.
TJ, of course, insists that it's all real.
Since much of his scam advice is real, it lends credibility to the idea that he was
a genuine fraudster.
In interviews, TJ has said that growing popularity might not be good for the scam rap genre.
A genre that's so specifically dedicated to promoting real crime could attract negative
attention if it became too mainstream.
However, he's got some skewed beliefs on how crime works.
TJ believes that he can't be arrested for a scam he pulled in the past and has already
gotten away with.
One of TJ's collaborators, Selfmade Kash, found out the hard way how untrue that sentiment
is.
Selfmade Kash, aka Jonathan Woods, was a scam rapper arrested in 2019 and charged with wire
fraud, aggravated identity theft, and possession of unauthorized access devices.
Some people probably didn't even know there was such a thing as aggravated identity theft
instead of just regular identity theft.
His arrest led to the odd scenario of federal employees commenting on scam rap in official
court documents.
One official wrote about Woods claiming to be sophisticated at credit card fraud when,
in fact, he isn’t.
Prosecutors talked about how Woods claimed to be the greatest' swiper' of all time in
his music and on social media.
It's amusing to see people with real jobs comment on this weird little rap genre.
But it also raises interesting questions.
Could TJ genuinely go to jail?
Woods was arrested because federal prosecutors watched his music videos and went on his Instagram
page.
Like other scam rappers, Woods was totally open about what he was doing.
Could a similar fate await TJ if he continues his scam rapping?
While TJ isn't worried about the cops, there are other people he's worried about: his victims.
In an interview, he said that he was worried that somebody he scammed in the past could
figure out it was him and come after him.
Some of them are probably pretty mad that the guy who scammed them got away with it
and made more money rapping about how he scammed them.
Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.
Has TJ never been arrested because there's nothing to arrest him for?
Could his scams be part of a fabricated backstory made up for clout?
Or is he just so good at scamming that the cops can't find anything to arrest him for?
Simply admitting to breaking the law in a song, a piece of art, isn't grounds for arresting
someone after all.
Pusha T, for instance, has been rapping about literally nothing besides selling drugs in
the 80s, and he's not getting arrested.
The police have to be aware of additional evidence to arrest a rapper.
Even if TJ isn’t a genius scammer, maybe he's a genius marketer.
He created a successful brand for himself and somehow managed to stand out among the
thousands of other aspiring rappers.
You don't really need to be skilled at actual rapping.
All you need are people to pay attention to you, and people are certainly paying attention
to TJ.
The current hip-hop landscape is all about how outrageous you can look and act to get
that attention.
That being said, TJ has been arrested.
Well… he might have been.
In July 2019, after he released the music video for Dark Web, TJ was arrested on stage.
At his first live performance in LA, two men wearing US Marshals jackets came onto the
stage and dragged TJ off.
Some fans shouted 'Free TJ,' but others believe TJ staged the whole thing, and it was just
another scam.
The jackets that the supposed US Marshals were wearing appeared to be ones you could
get at any costume store.
TJ has basically admitted that the arrest was staged.
When asked about it by Pitchfork, he laughed and covered his face.
Could this be another example of how TJ's true genius lies in the world of marketing?
Plenty of rappers have been arrested.
But who can say they've been arrested at their own concert?
Even if it wasn't real, it's a great way to get some headlines.
Bad Influence TJ has fully embraced the scam aesthetic.
He held a so-called scam convention, where people could meet him outside a streetwear
store in Manhattan.
He airdropped people who came to meet him with specific advice about scams.
TJ acted as a scamming guru that novices could go and visit for wisdom about the art of fraud.
By novices, we mean impressionable kids who should stay in school.
In interviews, TJ has openly said that kids can use his methods to go out there and start
scams of their own to get money.
When asked what would happen if a fan of his got caught, he brushed it off.
He said if they get caught, it's their fault.
It's hardly surprising that the founder of scam rap isn't particularly concerned about
what happens to his fans.
Disloyalty TJ no longer lives in Detroit.
Instead, he has a son and lives in the Michigan suburbs.
Maybe he just felt like moving somewhere a little quieter, or maybe he had to move because
he scammed everyone who lived nearby.
TJ has moved on from scamming random people to scamming his own fans.
Like many artists, he's sold t-shirts.
However, he has openly admitted to purposefully not shipping shirts to people who bought them.
He's said he picks who he wants to ship them to and that he scammed some people for the
shirts.
It's their fault for trusting a guy who literally made a career out of scamming people.
It doesn't get much more brazen than bragging about ripping off your own fans.
It's one thing to support an artist with a criminal past.
Maybe he was just parting fools from their money.
But supporting an artist who hilariously admits to scamming the very people who support him
IS on another level.
The future of hip hop, as it has been, is gonna be wild!
Click to watch one of these next videos!
And let us know in the comment section if you think TeeJayx6 actually is committing
scams and documenting it live or he’s just pretending!