Modern Review: TEC

Score: 3/5 | Released: September 22nd, 2023

Written By: Anthony Seaman  

 We all reach a certain age where every new artist that slides into your algorithm doesn’t immediately warrant a click like it did when you were younger and had ample time to slide down Youtube rabbit holes. Lil Tecca has existed in my pop-rap peripheral, always making songs that fit into the Internet Money type-beat sphere where rappers do an amalgamtive Nav-Travi$-Peep cosplay to appeal to the rugrats who have a big red circle on their calendar to mark the next Fornite concert. The infamous Genius video of him breaking down his lyrics and just how performative they are didn’t turn me off (as a Rick Ross fan, who am I to challenge the truth of lyrics), but rather the blandness of the raps themselves. If you’re gonna lie, go all the way out there with it. 6 years and 3 projects since “Ransom” sent him from creating music in his family home in Queens into the rap zeitgeist, the rapper-producer-label owner has finally hit drinking age, and is ready to shed the Kidz Bop Speaker Knockerz allegations for good. What may seem trivial is for the first time is him having an album cover featuring his in the flesh image instead of scenic dreamworlds where a shadowy outline with gleaming glasses acts as his avatar. In a recreated childhood bedroom you see his glory with your own eyes; platinum plaques for his We Love You Tecca series, images of him with family and cars, another plaque commemorating his Youtube success. From day one he was a hitmaker, and there's a hunger to prove that he's more than just empty stats.

Lyrically he still lives as a side character in a PG-13 coming of age comedy, spending his time parsing between heartbreak, partying, being crossed by friends and pulling women by the bunches, but the specifics of it all are starting to leak in. Less rapping in headlines of his days, and more reporting from his real POV. On “Used2Dis” he speaks on how his fame is affecting a romantic partnership, a step up from there just being issues with little reason as to why. A diversity in his flows and cadences has finally sprung as well, breaking out of the straight and steady read long flow he’s leaned on for so long, now swaying out just a tad. It’s the difference between quantizing your drums, and shaking them all slightly back by hand; a humanity is added ever so slightly to remind you real blood was pumped to make this art. The computerized projection of his natural nasal tone shines through on every hook, each one more addicting than the last. Where the project's craftsmanship comes into play is in its structure; sugar rush pop friendly hooks, slick transitions between songs, and mutating beats that never run stale. “HVN ON EARTH” and the BNYX sung hook/sample may end up being the best single record in his entire catalog, with a moderately focused Kodak verse tagged on to loop some chaos into something so strikingly sleek. Which is also the formula that makes the Life Of Pi’erre series so paramount, but everything has been compacted into a Tamagochi sized unit.

        All but two of the TEC songs cross the 3 minute mark (a lengthy 3:08 and 3:10 for each joints), and the album as a whole can be zoomed through in less than 40 minutes, compared to Bourne’s hour long trips through the catacombs of his life changing beats and torturously awful bars. More traditional trap leaning than an Eem Tripplin album but more melodically fluid than anything Nav has done, all while still invoking the playful jam sessions that come from being a bedroom superstar. It’s music to ride around solo doing errands to, a backdrop to spruce up folding Shein cargo pants, headnod music for washing the dishes. When shuffling through shelves of headlight bulbs in an AutoZone over the weekend, “500lbs” came on over the stores radio, a refreshing burst in between the DJ’s shuffle of “Turn Yo Clique Up” and “Rich Flex”. This is what Tecca is all about. Enough of a youthful jolt to the system to force you to Shazam it inside a chain store, but bleached out enough to still exist in those spaces. He can act as a gateway between the ears of casual rap fans and the gleaming blares of plugg/rage singers from the newest Soundcloud wave. He’s worked with helping propel the careers of Mr. Up Next himself SoFaygo, Babysantana, and Yung Fazo, each hyper focused youths looking to jolt an audience that still has to ask permission to hang out with their friends on weekends. For the future of everyone involved Tecca becoming more personal in his verse writing while welcoming in some of the aforementioned fresh voices to spruce up his next album could be the exact growth that can bring him from Prince of The Teens (Yachty still very much at least co-holds the King crown) into a respected pop rap heavy hitter.

Best Song: "Trippin’ On U"
Best Beat: "HVN ON EARTH"
Best Moments: The “HVN ON EARTH” hook, the “Racks” interpolation on “Salty”, the transition from “Real Discussions” into “Dead Or Alive”, the afrobeat switch up that is “Either Way”