Lil Tecca may be barely old enough to drink, but he has reams of experience under his belt. He's a more advanced rapper than he was even a year ago: he doesn't risk life and limb onstage, like when he leapt offstage without shoes and almost broke his feet.
At 21, he's still hurtling forward — personally and creatively. "When I was 16, I was put in a little bit of a box, in a way," he tells GRAMMY.com. "Like a Kidz Bop, Disney World kind of thing."
But his first two full-length projects, 2020's Virgo World and 2021's We Love You Tecca 2, put childish things to bed — and now, he's out with his most mature, cohesive album to date. In his word, it's "growner" than any of its predecessors.
Featuring guest appearances from Kodak Black ("Hvn on Earth") and Ken Carson ("Fell in Love"), TEC breezes through everything that makes Tecca, Tecca. The former single is a perfect example; he can effortlessly braid with a top-shelf MC while maintaining his individual voice and vibe.
"You're definitely going to feel a various amount of emotions throughout this project. There's hype songs; there's cocky songs; there's flexing; there's sad; there's insecure. There are songs where I'm trying to manifest my future."
Read on for an interview with Lil Tecca about his conception behind TEC; growing up listening to, then working with Kodak Black; and not getting in his own way creatively.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
Tell me about your creative synergy with Kodak Black.
I think with the song "Hvn on Earth," we really just found a common place where we both fit in creatively. We didn't make [the song] at the same time. When I sent it to him, he told me he really liked the song.
When I first thought of him on the song, I was like, OK, maybe this is gonna be a cool record. I didn't really ever think of the creative synergy for real. I just thought of how good he would sound on a beat.
What is it about the qualities of his voice, or his artistry, that made him perfect?
Growing up listening to Kodak Black, I always noticed the bounce to his beats — that Florida-ish bounce.
I made the beat to this one. Not that it reminded me of it, but I kind of felt like his flow complemented it.
Since you grew up listening to Kodak Black, getting to collaborate with him must have been a huge moment.
Yeah, definitely. I definitely grew up listening to Kodak, around 15, 14. He was one of the first rappers [I listened to].
Creatively what was the seed that grew into TEC?
I was just working on my album; I didn't even have a name for it yet. It was a little bit after my 2022 tour. I was just so ready to drop something for this, around this time.
Honestly, creatively, I'm always working. But putting this project together kind of put a battery in my back. Because I gave it a demand; it was like a must-be-done thing.
Putting together the whole album, I was very focused on incorporating all my sounds into this one sound — not leaving anything behind. Just making sure everything grows with me as I grow, and sticking to my roots, for sure.
What was it about this moment that galvanized you to get something out there? I'm sure returning to live shows — the energy of those — contributed to that.
Yeah, 100 percent. I'm always trying to drop a project every single year. Being super busy in 2022 and not being able to drop one, I was like, I really wish I got to drop a project.
So, coming around 2023, I didn't give myself no choice.
For those who haven't seen you live before, what can they expect?
My shows are very, very active. I feel like my setlist is very diverse. There might be a few chill songs, like [my 2022 single] "Love Me" or "Want It Bad" off my new album. A lot of slow songs that might give the fans a break.
Because when it comes to the real hitting-hard songs — loud 808s, loud bass, everything — it's mosh pits; it's very active in the crowd.
I love my setlist. It even gives me time to breathe sometimes, when I need to breathe. So, it's definitely a trip, for real. It's not like you walk into the spot and you're just jumping. You walk in, you're singing, you're jumping — just having a good time.
From a performance standpoint, who in the rap world inspires you? Regarding those two qualities — diversity and energy.
I don't really look to anyone for motivation. I would say my fans motivate me the most.
I go off their energy a lot. Not that their energy is everything, because if I see people not jumping, I'm still going to rock out. But if I see them do going crazy, that's just another battery in the back for me to just go crazy.
But I definitely look back at my own film. I definitely be checking out Rolling Loud, seeing how the people who perform, like the headliners, do. But I'm really just learning from my own mistakes, for real.
Such as?
I've made so many mistakes to perform the way I do now.
I've had to jump off the stage with no shoes on and almost break my feet. I realized that you can't really just be jumping off the stage with no shoes like that. To see fans run up on me on stage, and my bodyguard tackle them right in front of me; I'm in the middle of singing my last song of the set.
Especially coming into this game, me and my whole team — we're our own OGs. We learned this the same way everyone else learned it; we had to make our own mistakes for all the people we get under our wing.
To tell them, "Hey, listen, you shouldn't do that. We had to do that; we had to get the consequences of doing that."
Every artist, every MC, has a different dynamic with their fans. What's yours?
I feel like my fans are just like me. And even if they're not just like me, they think they just like me.
I feel like we relate. And that's, like, 50 — if not 60 — percent of the reason why they liked me. The music I make is just the soundtrack to how we relate to each other, and what we're both going through.
When I think of my fans, I definitely think of myself, and all the people that look up to me. When I win, they win. So, it's that window of seeing that it's possible: Look at this dude; he just like me. He going crazy. He doing what he wants to do. I could do what I want to do.
Would you like to shout out any accompanists and producers on TEC?
Taz Taylor and Rio Leyva. Shout out to BNYX too, but mainly, Taz Taylor and Rio Leyva.
Rio Leyva is the brain. He's the person in the background who's on the computer all day, figuring out all the lab stuff. Everyone else is also putting in work all the time — Census, Nash, Noah. All the guys at Internet Money.
They're all just working in and out, jus trying to figure out new sounds — new ways we could push the genre, push the sound we created, all that.
Taz Taylor was my partner in crime throughout this whole project, creatively-wise. I trust that man's ear — sometimes, when I don't trust my ear. That's one of them guys right there. If he wasn't part of this process, this album probably would have dropped in 2025.
Why's that? Do you tend to get a little self-doubting? Did he help nudge you up the hill?
I never get self-doubting. If anything, I'm overly confident. Like, I think anything I've touched turned to gold.
Because the way I see life is, like, if you weren't born, there's so many things that wouldn't exist. That's how I see my life, so I never take credit away from it. I look at it as great.
Sometimes, you need those people around you — to be like, "Hey, listen: you might think this is great, but this is the one right here."
And sometimes, you've got to go with your gut, like, "Hey listen: I know what you're thinking about it, but this is how I think about it." You've got to have a little balance around you.
*Lil Tecca. Photo: Cones*
And can you talk about the guests on TEC, other than Kodak?
Yeah, Ken Carson on "Fell in Love." He's been one of my friends for years now. So, to have that song on a project — that's really just another song that one of my friends and I made.
It really has no backstory. We just went in the studio, and one day, cooked it up.
What was it about "Fell in Love" that made the people need to hear it.
I feel like every song we make is good. But sometimes, we be making songs where it's like, OK, this one has my sound really efficiently. Because we make music for ourselves at the end of the day, too.
How would you describe the various moods contained on TEC?
Everything's on there. Especially if you're paying attention to the sonics, and the overall mood of the songs, you're definitely going to feel that I was going through a bunch of stuff during this process.
Perhaps that's why it's called TEC. It seems to be a consolidation of all your different sides.
Yes, literally that. I'm condensed into: Here it is. I'm not speaking around it.
And especially, my friends call me Tec in real life. Nobody calls me Tecca. Well, maybe someone will walk up to me on the street and call me Tecca. I never hear my government name, ever. So, that might make it a little more personal — to just call it TEC.
It seems like you've never self-inventorized on record like this.
When you just practice and care about the craft, you get better over time. Even if I thought I was good a year ago, looking back now, I'm way better now.
I'm way better at speaking about what I'm going through and actually translating it in a way to where it's inviting people into my world, instead of just blurting information at people. Like, "Yo, I'm sad right now!" "Yo, I'm happy! I just bought a Gucci bag!"
I'm presenting it in a different way, where it's like, OK, you're spending 30 minutes with me. Let's take a trip real quick. It's not just random.
What happened in your creative life that facilitated this?
I think, over time, you just pass this threshold in whatever you do. You don't even know when you hit that little threshold. It's like you could just have a convo, convo, convo. It's just a flow now. It just becomes a part of your being that it's a natural thing. You don't even realize you're doing it. You hop in a flow state.
I'm also coming from: you do it for so long, you realize you're still here. You realize, no matter who think you're not going to be here this time, you're still here, just do what you're going to do. You don't want to look at when you're 90 years old and all your grandkids around you, you won't be thinking about no Instagram comments.
So, that's how we're going to do it for real. I really passed that threshold from just not caring, not getting in the way of the creativity or the process at all.