Many of the kids at the convention see themselves in Teejay: They just want to come up and get fly, and scamming is their means to do that. Naysayers may criticize the rapper for normalizing such illicit techniques, but scamming is a culture that has existed long before the rapper ever came along, and it’ll be around long after the hype behind him dies down. And given that many of his described crimes involve swindling some of the wealthiest companies on Earth, he could even be seen as something of a rap Robin Hood for the age of cryptocurrency.

Teejay is self-aware enough to point out the very dark humor in it all. “People want to label me a scammer,” he tells me after the convention, attempting to slightly separate himself from more ruthless types of fraud. “But I’m really helping fans out, giving them advice, and even money if they need it.”

Teejay Witherspoon’s life began to change when he moved out of his mother’s home on Detroit’s Eastside earlier this year. “My mom is strict,” he says, in a light, unmistakably teenage voice. “At first she was saying I can’t live on my own, but eventually she became cool with it.” Six months ago, inspired by the music of Atlanta’s Money Man, he decided to start chronicling the scammer lifestyle in his raps. “People in Detroit were doing it, but they weren’t going into detail,” Teejay explains, wiping nonexistent lint from his Mike Amiri jeans and Versace Chain Reaction sneakers.

In late July, his music took off when he released a video for “Dark Web,” which shows him rapping on a roof while typing on a laptop. Two weeks later, during his first live performance in L.A., Teejay was arrested onstage by two men wearing U.S. Marshals jackets. The fiasco split fans: Some cried “Free Teejay” while others wrote it off as yet another scam, citing that the authorities’ dubious jackets and crowd-clearing approach appeared to be theater. “I guess they do got a point,” admits Teejay, pulling his shirt over his face, trying to hold in his laughter.

Since that incident, his music and social media accounts—which are bombarded with fans asking for him to bless them with new scam methods—have exploded. Teejay is in awe of his fresh fame. “I’ve only had an actual fanbase for like three weeks,” he says. The scammer life does have some drawbacks, though. On his recent track, “Apple,” he raps, “I can’t even get my haircut no more cause I done scammed my barber.” As we talk about the pluses and pitfalls of scam rap in a Midtown studio, it’s noticeable that his hairline looks like it was shaped up with a butter knife.