If you were online in 2017, you couldn't escape the image. A teenage kid with a baby face, standing in front of his own wanted poster, clutching a ruger. That was Taymor McIntyre, better known as Tay-K. Most "viral" moments in hip-hop are manufactured by PR teams. This wasn't. When the tay k race lyrics hit SoundCloud and YouTube, they weren't just verses; they were a real-time status update from a 16-year-old on the run for his life.
Honestly, it’s kinda surreal looking back. "The Race" wasn't just a hit song—it was a legal confession set to a beat. It peaked at number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually went platinum, but the cost was astronomical.
What the Tay K Race Lyrics Actually Meant
The hook of the song is pretty much the most famous part, and for a dark reason. "Fuck a beat, I was tryna beat a case / But I ain't beat that case, bitch I did the race." In street slang, "doing the race" means running from the police. Tay-K wasn't being metaphorical. He had been placed under house arrest in Tarrant County, Texas, for his involvement in a 2016 home invasion that left 21-year-old Ethan Walker dead.
In March 2017, just before a crucial court hearing, he cut off his GPS ankle monitor. He tweeted, "fuck dis house arrest shit... they gn hav 2 catch me." Then he vanished.
While the U.S. Marshals were hunting him down, he was in Elizabeth, New Jersey, recording this track. When you hear the line, "Pop a nigga, then I go out my way / Do the dash, then I go out the way," you're hearing a kid describe the very fugitive lifestyle he was living at that exact second.
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The Breakdown of the Track's Most Controversial Lines
The lyrics are dense with references to the crimes he was accused of.
- "We was plottin', y'all was tryna get the pack in / Get the pack in, you get robbed for a fraction": This directly refers to the motive behind the 2016 home invasion—a robbery for drugs and money.
- "I-I-I'm a shooter like I'm Young Pappy": A nod to the late Chicago drill rapper Young Pappy, known for his own violent history and legal troubles.
- "The shooter be the schooler, I'm the teacher": This play on words highlights his young age, basically saying he might look like a student, but he's the one in control.
It's a short song, barely 1 minute and 44 seconds long. But in that time, he managed to paint a target on his own back that the prosecution would later use to bury him.
How the Song Was Used as a Weapon in Court
Usually, lawyers argue that rap lyrics are art, fiction, or "hyperbole." They say you wouldn't arrest Bob Marley for "I Shot the Sheriff." But with tay k race lyrics, that defense fell apart because the timing was too perfect.
In July 2019, prosecutors played the music video in the courtroom. They didn't just play it for the vibes; they played it to show the jury that Tay-K wasn't remorseful. They pointed at the wanted poster in the background—a real poster issued by the police. They showed the jury the lyrics where he admitted to "trying to beat a case."
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The result? He was sentenced to 55 years for the murder of Ethan Walker.
But the legal nightmare didn't end there. In April 2025, Tay-K faced a second murder trial in San Antonio. This one was for the 2017 killing of 23-year-old photographer Mark Anthony Saldivar, which allegedly happened while Tay-K was on the run. Despite his defense arguing that his upbringing in a "turbulent" environment should be considered, the jury wasn't having it. On April 15, 2025, he was sentenced to an additional 80 years.
The Numbers Behind the Infamy
To understand the scale of this, you have to look at the stats. It’s a weird intersection of massive commercial success and total legal destruction.
- Billboard Peak: 44
- YouTube Views: Over 200 million on the original video.
- RIAA Certification: Platinum.
- Total Prison Time: 135 years (55 from the first trial, 80 from the second).
- Age at Recording: 16.
- Age at Arrest: 17 (captured the same day the video dropped).
The song even became a cultural phenomenon, with remixes from 21 Savage, Tyga, and Lil Yachty. It was even featured in the show Atlanta. But for the families of the victims, those lyrics aren't "cool"—they are reminders of a life taken for "a fraction."
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Why People are Still Talking About It in 2026
We're now nearly a decade out from the "The Race" going viral, and the conversation hasn't stopped. It's become the primary case study for the "Rap on Trial" debate.
There’s a huge divide in how people see this. One side says that using lyrics as evidence is a violation of the First Amendment and specifically targets Black artists. They argue that the music is a product of the environment, not a confession.
The other side, including the Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales, says "accountability knows no social status." They argue that when a song literally describes the timeline and motives of a crime that actually happened, it’s not just "art"—it's a digital footprint of a criminal act.
If you’re looking to understand the legacy of Tay-K, you have to separate the catchiness of the beat from the weight of the words. He’s currently 25 years old, and according to the 2025 sentencing, he likely won't see the outside of a cell until he's an old man.
What You Should Do Next
- Research the "Rap on Trial" legislation: Several states are currently debating bills that would limit how prosecutors can use lyrics in court.
- Listen with Context: If you're going to dive into the discography, do so knowing the real-world consequences those words carried.
- Check the Court Documents: For those interested in the legal side, the transcripts from the 2025 San Antonio trial provide a deep look into how digital evidence is evolving in the modern justice system.
The "race" is over for Tay-K, but the legal ripples of his lyrics are still being felt across the entire music industry.