Lil Tecca

Lil Tecca, born Tyler-Justin Sharpe in 2002 in Queens, New York, is one of the leading voices of the melodic, internet-driven wave of rap that emerged in the late 2010s. He began writing and recording as a child, uploading tracks online long before signing a deal, and built an early following that mistakenly assumed he was Canadian due to his popularity in Toronto.

His breakthrough came with «Ransom» in 2019, a hazy, hook-driven single powered by a Cole Bennett music video that pushed it into the Billboard Hot 100 top five. The song appeared on his debut mixtape, We Love You Tecca, which went platinum and helped define a sound built on airy melodies, laid-back cadences, and minimalist trap production rather than aggressive lyricism.

Since then Tecca has continued to release albums and mixtapes, including Virgo World, refining a style that blends pop sensibility with rap structure. He is often grouped with a generation of young New York rappers who found audiences through streaming and short-form video rather than traditional radio, and his melodic approach has influenced numerous younger artists in the genre.