"Tyler Smith, more known by his artist name tylerhateslife lost his life Tuesday at 5 a.m. while riding his motorcycle. He collided with a deer and was thrown off the bike and succumbed to his injuries on the scene. Tyler was 28 years old, had three sons, five siblings, and a new fiance, Savannah. (news report)

In addition to being a father, he was an army veteran where he served as chaplain and paratrooper. Tyler also led worship every morning for Abel Electric and at another church.

I can’t believe I just wrote those paragraphs. I’ve written over 10,000 articles, and this might be the hardest one.

Despite the name “HatesLife,” Tyler did in fact love life. He lived to serve others and point people to Jesus. It’s all he did and talked about.

The name comes from John 12:25.

“Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Knowing Tyler and talking to him, was like trying to catch energy with your bare hands. That’s why you can classify his music and artistry as lightning in a bottle.

Tyler wasn’t quite a rapper, wasn’t just a singer, wasn’t necessarily just a songwriter – he was everything all at once. He was genreless. He didn’t particularly care if you liked what he was doing, he knew, that whatever he was working on would reach the person it was supposed to.

During the final weeks of Tyler’s life, he was out on the street filming videos while ministering to strangers and playing his music. He frequently dove into subjects that resonated with people of faith and outside it. That’s how he garnered over half a million social media followers and half a million monthly listeners a month.

His biggest track, “mental health.” is closing in on 9 million plays on Spotify alone.

He didn’t just know how to engage people on TikTok, he was (excuse me), really freaking talented. He was under the radar within Christian rap circles, but in the overall scheme of things – his music reach went further than probably 90% of everyone in the space.

Hundreds and thousands of comments have been pouring in on social media since the news broke. Every single one is talking about how his music brought them out of a tough time or how a personal interaction with him turned their situations around.

That is impact. It’s the kind of impact we can hope and dream of leaving on this Earth. He’s gone, but his music, his impact, and his legacy live on forever.

The news hasn’t reached much of his fanbase yet because his socials have not been accessed. There is a real possibility that Tyler’s music will be heard by more people than he ever dreamed of because of his death. He would be happy to know more people are hearing about Jesus or finding healing. That’s impact.

I first met Tyler for our Freshmen 2021 class concert and music videos. He and I roomed together for a few days at the artist Air BnB. This dude pulled up in his truck and had a whole recording studio packed away. He was also recording and editing full albums on an iPad!

He unloaded all his stuff into a corner of the Air BnB and started performing songs on his guitar and loop pedal. All of us including his peers were enamored. His talent was radiating. It also inspired one of the coolest moments of my career.

On one of the days, we set up an acoustic performance for the Freshmen – Tyler, Coop, Saint James, Red Tips, and even non-Freshmen Caleb Gordon. Tyler played background guitar for several of the songs and we filmed the whole thing. It wasn’t possible without him.

After the Freshmen trip, I began to pay attention more and realized the potential Tyler had. His personality was infectious and his music was just so genuine. I see a lot of people throwing around the phrase “real deal” and that’s perfect.

Over the past year, with us launching Rapzilla Artists & Services, I began to have an everyday more hands-on role with Tyler. He, Chad, and I were constantly talking about new songs, content ideas, rollouts, and the future. We also started meeting weekly on video chat.

These discussions would always turn into life conversations. We were all friends talking about kids, family, and being “adults” in this fun music business we get to play in. Tyler was really getting it all together. He was ambitious driven, and just came out of an extremely tough period in his life. I remember the first conversations when he brought up his fiance Savannah. He told us he was going to propose and sent us the song he wrote and explained every detail. I then had to take that extremely personal song and upload and distribute it. It was an honor.

We last spoke at 5 p.m. on Monday. The conversation was to 100% confirm his involvement as a performer and panelist at this year’s Future Legacy event in Nashville. He would then hang around for a few days, filming content, singing at churches, hanging with friends, and then walking the red carpet at the Dove Awards. It was an exciting time because we’d all be together for the first time since 2021.

Tyler also told us he would be finishing up a new version of his “mental health.” song to complete his album that would drop on September 13th. We do not have the final track.

I wouldn’t find out about Tyler’s passing until 5 p.m. the next day when Chad and I got a text from an artist asking about Tyler. It was then a scramble to figure out what happened. Eventually, after doing some digging I found it online.

It’s hard to describe the feeling because you don’t think it’s real. We had been plotting the future and his career for months and months. He got the Dove Awards look, he was mentally in a great place, he was in love, and his music was getting better and better. 2025 was the year tylerhateslife would become the star he was born to be. And then gone. It’s not fair. He deserved better. It’s not fair. His kids deserved better. It’s not fair, Savannah deserved better. It’s not fair, the world deserved better. However, God knows better. So we take solace in the fact that we don’t know yet what will come of this, but it was supposed to happen.

Before I wrap this up, I want to share what Chad had to say about Tyler.

“As an artist, Tyler was a breath of fresh air within the CHH space. Ultimately, we crowned him as one of the 2021 Rapzilla Freshmen and got to spend quality time with him as well as the rest of that class on a trip to Atlanta to celebrate and create with the class.

We talked to Tyler almost daily as we distributed his music and we were developing him as an artist. We formed a close relationship especially since Tyler was so transparent and open to listening to us as mentors.

Tyler had a rough life and this year we saw a lot of maturing happening with him as a young man and artist. He was coming into a great place with his music and recently being engaged. We were all in good spirits and were about to drop his new website, first line of t-shirts, and were starting to focus on getting him to his ultimate dream which was to be touring and spreading the gospel through his music.

He was 1 of 1 and I’m going to miss our conversations and will always think of what I missed in seeing his growth as a man but have to take comfort in knowing he’s with the Father.”

At the time of this writing, we don’t know of any funeral arrangements or fundraising attempts made by the family. The only thing we can suggest is running his streams up because it’s more money that can be sent to his family. Also, for the entire day, we’ve been posting clips of Tyler using the hashtag #TylerhateslifeDay. Please join us by providing memories of Tylerhateslife! Also, keep the family and all those impacted in your prayers.

Finally, to close this out, I leave you with the words of one of Tyler’s last songs, “First things first, Jesus loves you. No Matter what you say…”