tim dog
Rapper Tim Dog in his 1990s heyday. Ruffhouse Records

Though Tim Dog was announced dead in February, a Mississippi judge seems convinced that the hard-core rapper faked his death to avoid a debt. The Desoto County judge has even issued an arrest warrant for Tim Dog on the suspicion that he's still alive and in hiding.

Prosecutor Steven Jubera explained to Memphis’ WREG-TV that there's plenty of proof Tim Dog is still alive. For instance, none of the rapper’s family members have been able to produce a legal death certificate and none of Dog's obituaries named a burial site.

“Nobody said where he died. Nobody said where he was buried, which is very odd for an obituary,” Jubera told WREG. "I need proof. I need a death certificate showing that he's dead because as far as I'm concerned, he's alive."

In 2011, Tim Dog (born Timothy Blair) was convicted of grand larceny after conning Mississippi woman Esther Pilgrim out of $32,000 via an online dating scam. As a part of his plea agreement, Tim Dog was ordered by the court to pay back $19,000 to Pilgrim in monthly installments. When Tim Dog was declared dead in February, the payments stopped.

Now, Pilgrim says that the rapper isn’t dead, but simply faked his death to avoid paying her back.

“I believe he was so angry that he had to pay me back,” Pilgrim told WREG.

Apparently, Pilgrim isn’t the only one that thinks Tim Dog faked his death. His collaborator Ced Gee tells WREG that he would not speak at Tim Dog’s funeral because his family could not produce a death certificate. Ced Gee believes there was no funeral for Tim Dog at all.

In fact, if reports from All Hip Hop can be believed, there was in fact a funeral held for Tim Dog, but there wasn't a body and the funeral was not conducted by his closest family members. His family also reportedly believes that Tim Dog is alive and in hiding.

If Tim Dog’s family can indeed produce a death certificate, the charges will be dropped.

In the early 1990s, New York-based Tim Dog rose to fame on the back of his 1991 single “F*ck Compton,” a scathing diss track aimed at seminal West Coast rap group N.W.A. A few years before, N.W.A. released the classic album “Straight Outta Compton.” Some credit Tim Dog’s “F*ck Compton” with igniting the East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry that dominated the 1990s and led to dozens of killings.