User:Kidjosh/sandbox

Tyler-Justin Anthony Sharpe (born August 26, 2002), known professionally as Lil Tecca, is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. He gained recognition upon releasing his breakout single, "Ransom", which has amassed over 400 million plays on Spotify and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. He has also previously released songs that have garnered attention such as "Love Me", "Molly Girl", "Did It Again" and "Bossanova", which have all appeared on his debut mixtape We Love You Tecca released on August 30, 2019. The mixtape peaked at number 4 on the US Billboard 200.

Early life
Tyler-Justin Anthony Sharpe was born on August 26, 2002, in the Queens area of New York City. He was raised in the Springfield Gardens neighborhood of Queens, but he would later relocate to the Lawrence area of Long Island. He is of Jamaican ancestry, and his parents are both Jamaican migrants. From a young age, Sharpe had aspirations of being in the NBA, but at around 12, he turned his attention towards pursuing a career in music. Due to his up and coming music career, he is currently being home-schooled by his parents, so he can keep making music while earning his high school degree.

Career
When he was 9 years old, Tecca catered to his interest in music by rapping with his friends over his mic on Xbox. When he was starting out, he used his sisters laptop to record his songs. They would make diss tracks directed towards each other, one of which was uploaded to SoundCloud years ago, but has since been taken down due to Teccca's fear that his high school counselor would get him in trouble over it. At first, he did not have intentions to start a musical career and instead had dreams of being an NBA star. However, in his middle school years, he lost interest in basketball and considered taking music more seriously. The first that Lil Teccas parents heard about his music career was from his sister who eventually found Teccas music on her laptop and told their parents. Tecca said in an interview with YouTube channel Cufboys that he got his stage name from an acquaintance on Instagram who was named Tecca, and she called him "Lil Tecca" because her name was already Tecca on Instagram. The explanation was echoed during an interview with Genius, titled “What I Do”.

His first track to gain some popularity, "tectri", was made in collaboration with his friend, Lil Gummybear, and was released in early 2017. Other preliminary tracks of his include "Callin", "My Time", and "Rags to Riches".

One day Taz Taylor, the producer of not only Teccas breakout hit Ransom, but also most songs on his debut mixtape took notice of Teccas song “Love No Thotties”, and tweeted out that he would be interested in doing a collab project with Tecca, and Tecca flew out from his parents' house in New Jersey to LA where he, Taz, and Taz’s affiliates  spent time making songs back to back. According to Taz’s good friend Nick Mira, Tecca made Ransom and another hit song of his “Did It Again” back to back. About a week or two the group was stuck in a bidding war over Tecca after Ransom charted on Billboard.

Tecca's career began to take off with his hit single, "Ransom", which was originally uploaded on Cole Bennett's Lyrical Lemonade YouTube channel on May 22, 2019. The song has since peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and received over 300 million plays on Spotify and over 100 million views on YouTube.

On August 30, 2019, Tecca released his debut mixtape, titled We Love You Tecca. The mixtape peaked at number 4 on the US Billboard 200.

Artistry
Tecca states that he was influenced by many artists ranging from Michael Jackson and Coldplay in his childhood, to Eminem, Lil Wayne, Meek Mill, Waka Flocka Flame, and Chief Keef. Tecca credits Speaker Knockerz as the artist that he believes he sounds most melodically similar to. However he has stated that he freestyled Ransom, using a method that he picked up from Juice Wrld, who appeared on a remix of Ransom. Juice Wrld also had an impact on Lil Tecca's personal life after they connected for the Ransom Remix, and when he passed Lil Tecca wrote "You were just giving me tips on how to battle my anxiety".