Tay-K arrested in New Jersey three months into US Marshals manhunt

Why it matters

June 30, 2017. US Marshals arrested Taymor McIntyre, who recorded as Tay-K, at a Chili's restaurant in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was 17. He had been on the run for three months, having cut off his court-ordered ankle monitor in March 2017 to flee house arrest related to capital-murder charges in Texas for an attempted home invasion that resulted in the death of 21-year-old Ethan Walker. The complication, in 2017, was that Tay-K had released a song called "The Race" during his fugitive period. The chorus was "how the fuck I'm on the run, I'm rappin' on the run." The video showed him posing in front of his own wanted poster. The song hit #44 on the Billboard Hot 100. He was being marketed as a 17-year-old viral rap star at the same moment he was an active subject of an interstate manhunt. The arrest closed that loop. He was convicted of murder in 2019 and sentenced to 55 years in prison. He remains incarcerated. You can argue the music industry's promotional system should not have engaged with him during his fugitive run. The argument has been made many times. The promotional system has not, in similar subsequent cases, much changed its behavior.