PLAN A

It feels fairly remarkable that Lil Tecca is now five full-length projects deep into his rap career. After all, it seems like only yesterday that the Queens, New York, phenom broke out in a big way with the 2019 smash “Ransom” and the corresponding *We Love You Tecca* mixtape. Over the next half-decade, he regularly logged chart hits, including the 2023 standout “500lbs.” For his fourth album in as many years, he continues to mine a sound built on swirling synths, post-trap percussion, and melodic vocals. Preceded by booming singles like “BAD TIME” and “NEVER LAST,” *PLAN A* shows an artist living in—and sounding like—this specific moment in time. Having come into stardom as a teen, Tecca’s youthful energy ensures his delivery neither slackens nor wanes across these 18 tracks. He documents his endurance on the shimmering “24HRS” and brags about the type of baddies he pulls on “HOMEBODY.” Even when the tempo noticeably drops, as on the drill-adjacent “SELF2SELF” or the steal-your-girl warning “NUMBER 2,” he stays engaging and engaged. There appears to be no limits to his sex life, a topic he expounds upon at length throughout the album’s runtime. Whether calculatingly limiting his communications with an eager lover on “4U” or pondering whether a taken woman is worth the pursuit (“COLD GIRLS”), he seems exceedingly comfortable in his young-lothario niche. A rare exception to these predominantly solo cuts, the bass-heavy “I CAN’T LET GO” brings Don Toliver into the studio to extoll the virtues of their hip-hop celebrity vices.