For rapper Lil Tecca, there was only ever a 'Plan A.' His new album reflects the journey

NEW YORK (AP) — There's the story everyone knows about Lil Tecca, and then there is Tyler Sharpe, the rapper-producer with big aspirations and the dedication to see it through. His fourth studio album, appropriately titled “Plan A,” out Friday, isn't a culmination of his career to date — but it does reflect the journey.

“‘Plan A’ summarizes my plan for life,” he told the Associated Press. “It’s never a plan B.”

The popular narrative goes a little something like this: Five years ago, a then-teenage MC from New York released “Ransom,” introducing the world to his singsong-y, AutoTune-inspired flow and hook-heavy melodies. People loved it, and quickly. As of last month, the Recording Industry Association of America has accredited it eight-times platinum.

A hit at the start of a career is usually a sure-fire way to kneecap it, to burn bright and fast, but Lil Tecca managed to avoid the cliche. He has a loyal and fervent fanbase, and he never let the hype overwhelm him. The music was always first. It's why his last album, “Tec,” which arrived almost exactly a year before “Plan A,” was celebrated in hip-hop circles, with tracks like “500 lbs” and an inspired collab with Kodak Black, “Hvn on Earth.”

For this album, Tecca enlisted the producers he’s been working with since day one — like Rio Leyva, Taz Taylor and the like — to evolve the sound he's spent the last few years cultivating. “My most favorite people to collaborate with are producers,” he says. “We mainly create with no expectations."

Their process hasn't changed much from the early days: Tecca picks a beat and freestyles or writes to it. “Sometimes I might just rap on the loop. No beat, no drums, no nothing,” he says. “The only difference is just sharpening the craft.”

There's only one listed feature on the album — Don Toliver on the futuristic trap-rock, “I Can't Let Go.”

“Don Toliver is fire,” he says, simply. “When it came to having the Don song on there, it just felt like the perfect moment, honestly, for what I was trying to achieve in that first half of the project.”

Part of that goal is transparency.

“This one is definitely way more personal. I'm speaking about things I’ve never spoken (about) like my mom and stuff like that,” he says, referring to the smooth throwback, “MAMA.”

“So I kind of just wanted to let people take another step closer to me, on the personal side."

It's found in songs about relationships and miscommunication, too, like the single “Taste.”

Tecca says the many elements that make up “Plan A” manifest in a few different ways, fashion among them. He's been wearing a lot of leopard print lately; it appears on the album cover, the single artwork for “Bad Time,” and elsewhere. “Fashion, specifically, is just another way I express myself,” he says. “I kind of learned it from going to a uniform school. It’s like those Fridays where you get to wear what you want. You feel different... It's definitely another layer to who I am.”

As for future plans — he's got those mapped out. Video games, film, TV, they're all ambitions. “I honestly want to do everything that I’m into, I want to show my version of it,” he says. “So I’m into games. I want to show my version of what like, the best game is. I’m into movies. I want to show my version of what the best movie is.”

“Mentally, I'm definitely already in the next chapter,” he says.

But for now, it's all about “Plan A.” And he hopes new listeners and his dedicated fans will join him for the ride.

“My music isn’t just about me. My music is sort of just the soundtrack to the people that support me in the world that I put my music in,” he concludes. “My No. 1 priority is to inspire the people that actually believe in me.”