From Xbox Live Roast Battles to Fortnite Festival Headliner: Lil Tecca's Gaming Roots Run Deep

At nine years old, Lil Tecca wasn't thinking about becoming a rapper — he was just trading playful disstracks with friends over Xbox Live voice chat. Years later, that habit has grown into five albums, and now it's landed him as the headliner for Fortnite Festival Season 15 — following in the footsteps of Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, and Laufey on the rhythm game's main stage, built by the team behind Rock Band.

"It feels amazing, I'm genuinely a heavy Fortnite player myself," Lil Tecca tells NME. His go-to mode is solo zero build — stripping away the building mechanics to focus purely on gunplay and reflexes. He's also quick to praise the game's character customization freedom, "and honestly, I'm pretty good at it too, which makes it easier to love." For him, this collab isn't just a business tie-in — it's something of a full-circle moment: "A few years back when my music was just starting to blow up, people were already using my songs to soundtrack their Fortnite highlight reels, so headlining Festival now genuinely feels like everything coming full circle."

The collaboration features four tracks — "Dark Thoughts," "Ransom," "Love Me," and "500lbs" — which Tecca calls "the perfect entry point" into his catalog, blending heavy-hitting singles with party anthems. With over 20 million daily players logging into Fortnite, this means a lot of people will be hearing his name for the first time, something he's already embraced: "I've always wanted to reach new listeners, introduce myself to people who might genuinely vibe with my music — this is a great opportunity for that." He's also looking forward to longtime fans seeing "a version of himself that plays Fortnite" in-game, hoping it might inspire the next Lil Tecca to emerge.

What Vice City Radio Taught Him About "Intentional Chaos"

Last year's album Dopamine came together in his own home studio, drawing inspiration from the two fictional radio stations in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — Fever 105 and Flash FM. Those stations blended disco, soul, old-school pop, and fictional DJ banter all into one chaotic mix. "That intentional messiness really influenced me," Tecca says. "Everything in that game — the setting, the soundtrack, characters like Tommy Vercetti — it all just makes sense together, and I wanted Dopamine to have that same sense of chaos."

On the album, he also wanted to push into territory he hadn't explored before, like using a Pharrell-inspired beat on "Dark Thoughts." The lyrics are actually about comforting a partner going through a rough patch — heavy subject matter — but the production is upbeat and danceable. "I love that contrast," he says. "If you're feeling down, hopefully this song lifts you up; if you're already hyped, it takes you even higher." As for fans campaigning to get his music into the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, Tecca kept it brief, saying he "doesn't really have anything to say about that right now."

From the SoundCloud era — when calling yourself a rapper wasn't even considered cool yet — to where he is now, Tecca says his goal hasn't changed: "I just want to prove how far you can go making music from your bedroom, be the proof of concept for whoever comes next — someone even bigger and better than Lil Tecca." Fortnite Festival Season 15 is live now and runs through October 31st.