Tyler-Justin Anthony Sharpe (born August 26, 2002), better known by his stage name Lil Tecca, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He gained recognition upon releasing his breakout single, "Ransom", which has gained over 200 million plays on Spotify, and peaked at number five 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 on August 30, 2019. 　　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, where he resides alongside his parents as of now. 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. 　　Career 　　When he was 9 years old, Tecca catered to his interest in music by rapping with his friends over Xbox Live parties. They would make diss tracks directed towards each other, one of which was uploaded to SoundCloud years ago, but has since been taken down. 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. 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". 　　Just a year later, 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 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and received over 200 million plays on Spotify and over 90 million views on YouTube. 　　On August 30, 2019, Tecca released his debut mixtape, titled We Love You Tecca.