Lil Tecca has come a long way from his “Ransom” days. The 2019 breakout hit, which is now 7x platinum-certified by the RIAA, is uncharacteristically bubbly compared to the vibe of his latest album Dopamine. In retrospect, Tec was just 16-years-old when he made that song, springing from bar to bar with a hopeful exuberance only found in childhood. “I want all the diamonds, I want that s—t to weigh a ton,” he croons.
Well, now at 22, with four top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 to his credit, he very much has the diamonds. But aside from some pearls draped around his neck during his visit to the Billboard offices, Lil Tecca opts for a more relaxed demeanor. As Dopamine explores through its seedier backdrops, the realities of fame aren’t as glamorous as 16-year-old Tec had been led to believe. “Been a while, I been goin’ through the bulls—t,” he raps on “Hollywood.”
His 2025 hit “Dark Thoughts” — which brought him back to the Hot 100’s top 40 for the first time since “Ransom,” peaking at No. 28 thusfar — continues those trends, driven by a funky bassline more than a SoundCloud-era hi-hats. Dopamine itself flows more like a never ending radio station, embalmed with the sounds of disco, funk, Afrobeats, R&B and more. The sequencing of it was very intentional, with Tecca admitting he has been consuming a lot of music from classic alternative bands like Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Bad Brains and L7 to stay in the Dopamine mindset. Oh, and Grand Theft Auto.
“There were little details that they added to their soundtrack that I’m like, ‘Okay, this is what makes a collection of songs a world,” Tecca said, admitting he pulled heavily from Vice City‘s radio stations. “Like the interpolations in the middle, where the [DJ] is setting the tone, setting the mood, setting the stage, so that these roller coaster drops and rises aren’t abrupt.”
Lil Tecca sits with Billboard to talk his new album GTA, and how it feels being one of the youngest rappers in the game.
On “Dark Thoughts” you rap: “My life changed so fast, that I don’t even recognize myself from last year.” What was going on between Plan A and Dopamine? How exactly did your life change?
We just learned a lot, [and] applied what we learned through the process to create Dopamine itself. World building aspects, leaning towards our own pleasures, overall just being more authentic to what we were putting out.
What kind of music were you consuming during Dopamine’s early days? There’s a lot of different influences on this project.
I was really listening to the Vice City soundtrack the whole time.
Like Grand Theft Auto? How did you stumble back onto that?
Yeah, Fever FM and Flash FM! Flash FM had all those discos vibes on it. I was just looking for soundtracks originally, and then once I stumbled on the Vice City soundtrack I just stuck with it throughout the process.
How important was it to add those different influences to Dopamine?
If I wasn’t making it, I was just making sure I was consuming it. So it came off natural, cause that’s where my taste was existing at that point. Off the wake up, I’m turning on the Vice City soundtrack. So by the time I get to recording, I already got my vibe set in a way. I knew ever since I heard the station on YouTube in its entirety that it was gonna be on top of the transitions. When you hear, like, the Fever FM and he’s talking in the middle s—t I wouldn’t even repeat on here, but it’s very much you’re not listening to the songs, you’re listening to Fever FM. I wanted to implement that same vibe. You’re not just listening to Dopamine, you’re listening to a soundtrack.
When did the creative direction of Dopamine really start to show itself?
We were making music from the point when Plan A was finished, but we didn’t have the name Dopamine probably until, I’d say six months ago. That’s really when the umbrella was formed. I’ve always just been interested in the brain and how it works and why it works and when I stumbled upon Dopamine that was where my interest peaked, honestly. With music being one of my forms of pleasure, calling it Dopamine was kind of my way of packaging all of that up into one body of work. So the process was really smooth. It was really authentic to all of us that were working on it. I think this was the fastest we got the album done.
The transitions here from song to song feel very intentional. How important was the flow of the project when you were putting the album together?
It was essential honestly, we had a certain amount of songs we thought was the sweet spot: which was 16. Regarding actually getting the track list done and quantifying how much we had left, that made it easier. ‘Cause it was like, “Okay, we have five songs that we really love. We know they’re not coming off the track list, that means we just got nine more to make, or seven more or whatever the case may be.”
So we were just checking off certain vibes as the process was flowing. The Afro vibe, R&B vibe and of course “Dark Thoughts” was kinda a new sound for what Tecca is. So it sort of lifted the boundaries on what turns we could make this time around, on what’s considered experimental. That’s when you get the “Favorite Lie” or the “Irish Goodbye” because it’s like, “Okay, they like it, let’s try a little bit more.” I love how it turned out. It turned out naturally.
When it comes to talking about your music I feel like how young you are always becomes a part of the conversation. What’s your relationship to your age and how people perceive your art based on your age? Do you ever feel it puts you in a box?
No, not really. I did come up at a very young age but I don’t even know if I see myself as a child prodigy by comparison. It doesn’t annoy me at all, it’s cool to me.
With this pivot in sound, were you at all worried your fans wouldn’t pivot and grow with you?
I knew they would love it, and I knew that it was time to pivot in certain directions to show what we have to offer. In the booth we have so many different vibes and so many different sonic identities that we tap into, but I thought it was definitely time to show a different side and I feel like the fans perceived it really well.
Why is Ken Carson the only feature on the project? You don’t really tap into features that often on your projects.
I make a lot of my music just in my room, and to me music is a really personal thing. I’m not against features at all. I just let things happen when the time is right. I actually know Ken in real life, so it’s a little bit different. It didn’t just feel like we were just putting someone on the album.
How do you feel about the state of rap right now?
I haven’t even sat down to think about it honestly because I’ve just been creating so much. But I would definitely say it’s in a cool place, things are changing faster than ever right now, but that’s just what rap is.
Coming out of the SoundCloud era, do you ever worry about getting left behind because things are changing so quickly?
I just kinda try to do my own thing. When you’re in your own lane, you can choose when to speed up or slow down, but when you’re in traffic you gotta swerve around and find your way through. When you alienate the people that won’t understand, on the other side it might be hate or whatever the case might be, but it only lets the people that truly understand you gravitate towards you more.
What have you learned about yourself and your music just from going from 16 to now?
You can only learn so much at once. A lot of lessons come through one bit at a time. You just gotta charge it to the game a lot of the times. You might run into an obstacle that at the time you don’t have the tools to hop over, and you might fall. Just make sure when you get up, you don’t fall twice from the same thing. Coming in this at a young age, we don’t have any big bros or OGs to tell us, “This is what’s gonna happen when you do this.” So a lot of the times, keep going and when you fall get back up. We just make sure we don’t fall twice, because obstacles are unavoidable. We just make sure to learn these lessons one at a time.
