Markell Clay is a semi-famous twitter personality and singer. He has acquired his fame from featuring in songs with Tyga, and The Game. It is with this fame that he is able to lure and convince upcoming artists from around the U.S. to have a false sense of security and eventually send him money in hopes of being featured on a song.

Nowadays the industry is riddled with scam artists and agency’s attempting to steal your money in promise for the exchange of fame and notoriety. Markell Clay however is a special case in the fact that he is not working as an agency, but alone, and that he claims to be partnered/working with Tyga, Lil Wayne, and MTV Jams. It is with these claims that he is able to convince hundreds of artists to willingly send money through money gram (which is non-refundable) to hopefully get a chance to share their music.


I discovered Markell Clay when my good friend Stephen Mancino (Cinoevil) @SuperMancinooo was contacted by the scam artist while I was sitting next to him enjoying a glass of orange juice. I asked Steve when he first got the direct message from Markell Clay who he was buried in his phone texting to. He quickly responded saying that he was messaged by someone famous who wants to do a song with him.


I was elated for my friend, and before I could ask who he was Steve had stepped out of the room to have a conversation with him. While Steve was talking I waited anxiously to find out what was going to happen. When he finally came back in the room I was sitting with Steve’s sister and her boyfriend and Steve was carrying a massive grin on his face. He hung up the phone and immediately shouted “I JUST TALKED TO LIL WAYNE!” Now as a rap artist in the Hip-Hop industry that is quite an accomplishment and whether or not it was really him is merely speculation. I couldn’t believe my ears, and to be honest it was a lot to take in. All this excitement however quickly turned into suspicion when Steve revealed that he needed to send five hundred dollars to Markell Clay on money gram. Only problem was Steve didn’t have five hundred dollars to give away. He quickly urged his sister to spot him the funds in hopes that it would be considered a good investment considering Steve firmly believed he was actually getting an offer. Now before I continue I just want to state that there is no greater anguish than feeling like a life long dream of yours is coming true and to be filled with such an euphoric exhilaration to only find out later that he is a big time scam artist, who steals from the poor and gives to himself, the rich. When Steve told us about the five hundred dollars we all immediately became suspicious and demanded we actually see this guy. Steve asked to see if he could get him on Skype, a video calling application, so we could see his face and hear his voice. Markell Clay willing agreed and in seconds we had him on video, showing us his face. My first impressions were bad. He not once in our entire conversation mentioned Steve’s talent or anything about why he wanted specifically Steve to feature on his song. He also sounded extremely uneducated and unfit to be in whatever position he claimed to reside. It was because of his lack of charisma and constant use of the phrase “fo sho” translated roughly into “For sure” which he constantly repeated when talking to us, that showed a gross lack of professionalism and education. When he hung up we all immediately began asking questions while Steve’s sister quickly found out more information. The first thing that came to mind for me was the fact that five hundred dollars is a very awkward sum of money. It felt as though it was perfect amount for an up and coming artist to have, and to willing give away in the promise of fame and fortune.


It seems it is always a tell tale sign of a scam when someone who will be making money off you regardless is forcing you to give even more money only with the promises of continued business. Luckily Steve was surrounded by smart, and educated people who genuinely care about him and don’t want to see him get ripped off.


We quickly took to Twitter and found as much as possible about him. The following images were people all over Twitter, infuriated about being robbed out of five hundred hard worked dollars.

As you can see in the image (left) he used the same exact words and contacted the same exact type of person. An upcoming artist, just trying to get their music heard.


It was when we started seeing all of these twitter posts that our suspicions were confirmed and we had beyond any reasonable doubt that Markell Clay was not who he advertised to be.

He posts a video on Instagram (below) regarding his latest scam. The video was posted because someone tried to expose him for the con that he is. I want you to listen to the way he talks and tell me if you would trust this guy.


Markell Clay Instagram Video



Markell Clay says in the video (above) that the artist he was trying to scam is “Done.” and “will never get a deal at Universal” You also see him hold up money, in which he probably got from using this scam as he states that the specific artist will be blacklisted from the entertainment industry. These are very big words from someone who I’ve


only even just discovered existed.




As we continued to talk about the scam in the kitchen, Steve was very anxious to get the money to him, still believing it was a legitimate chance at stardom. Unfortunately for Steve he had a prior engagement to attend to and couldn’t get to WalMart to send Markell the money. He then called his cousin who very much believes in Steve’s talent and would do anything to help his family member and good friend out. When Steve told him about the five hundred he was immediately skeptical like we all were and decided he’d come over to talk about it. Steve however couldn’t wait any longer and had to leave while we continued to find more information on how much of a fraud this guy really is. When Nick (Steve’s cousin) came over I finally was able to talk to the alleged scam artist posing as his cousin. Nick had very little patience for scam artists and refused to answer any of his calls, until I eagerly asked if I could instead. From our short conversation on the phone I gauged a huge literacy and overall mental handicap. So much so I found it very difficult to understand what he was actually saying. I told him that I will not be giving him five hundred dollars, and that if he was really interested in Steve’s music he would be okay to wait for Steve to have the money. He then, and I quote said “Listen, I am a very smart man, I am a very smart man...” which no intelligent person would ever have to actually say. He then goes on and says “I’m 25, you’re 19, when a man tells you to do something, you do it.” I personally found that extremely disrespectful and potentially sexist in stating a superiority over me by flaunting a male hierarchy. Being a male myself I’ve never had that feeling before and to be honest it was down right disgusting. I hung up the phone and ended our pointless conversation.



Steve was then ruthlessly bombarded by text after text from Markell. You can see (left) from those texts that Markell only was interested in getting the money. He also threatened legal action, and said that Steve would never do anything in this industry, and that he will personally make sure of it. It is a personal threat to Steve’s own inalienable right, the Pursuit of Happiness. Markell has not only attempted to scam my friend but he also threatened and intimidated both me and Steve personally.

Although he didn’t use the exact same number with Steve, he did use the same Atlanta, Georgia area code. He did however use the same number with the following screenshots collected from Twitter by people attempting to expose him for what he is. (Bottom Left)


Markell Clay is the definition of a Reverse- Robin Hood. He steals from the poor and gives to the rich. He takes our American dream, our lively hood, and our hope for a brighter tomorrow, and uses it to gain a small and practically meaningless monetary benefit. I wrote this article in the hopes of completely exposing this fraud for what he truly is. Whatever fame or fortune he has amounted is tarnished due to his malicious, selfish, and blatant disregard for the laws of our country and the high morale standard that American citizens, and especially those with wealth are held to.

If you would like to speak to me personally regarding this issue please send an email to andrewtaranta@hotmail.com


We have a obligation to see an evil and shine a light on it and the malevolent wrong doings of a self centered, egotistical, criminal who walks the streets and enjoys fame and fortune at the costs of hard working American citizens. Whether you care about Hip-Hop that is merely circumstantial, we have ourselves a thief who deserves nothing less than the full extent of the law.

What can you do?

Share this post. Talk about it. Tell people that this is going on. We can only do so much individually but as a joint effort I believe we have a very legitimate chance at bringing Markell Clay to justice.


Thank you for reading and please do share on Facebook and Twitter.

andrewtaranta@hotmail.com

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