Tco Riaz

About Tco Riaz

Guyanese, Jamaican artist Tco Riaz has released 3 singles, 1 mixtape, 3 solo albums & 2 collaboration albums. Tco Riaz 1st project as a solo artist was released in February of 2005 titled “Casually Done.” This was a mixtape hosted by DJ Envy, consisting of 12 R&B songs written & recorded to music industry beats from
different hip-hop artist of different time periods, ranging from early 90’s to 2005. During the start of his journey, Tco linked up with a Rap Duo called “Front Page” from Freeport, NY & started working with them. This would then lead up to his next project which would have been his 1st collaboration album. This was completed in April of 2005 & released under Front Page’s management/label. The album was titled “Pifftown.” Consisting of 15 HipHop tracks w/ Tco mainly singing hook & bridge parts of the songs. Two of the songs even aired on Hot97fm’s DJ Kay Slay’s “The Drama Hour” segment in summer 2005. During the next 1-2 years, Tco & Front Page continued to work on collaborating with each other, and may have recorded a total of 2.5 albums worth of material, which never got released but fortunately during that time, Tco was offered the opportunity to open up for Lil Wayne @ The Newark Symphony Hall In NJ 2007. Tco thought about all the time & work he was putting in for other artist’s projects & figured it was time to focus more on his own career which eventually led him to producing, writing & recording his single titled “This Is” featuring a Queens Rapper named “WIZE.” Tco at the time was able to connect again with DJ Envy. Through this connection, Tco was able to release his single “This Is” live on Hot97fm during DJ Envy’s “The People’s Choice Hit List” segment in March 2008 for 2 weeks in a row. This was just in time before DJ Envy left Hot97fm in mid-2008.
Tco Riaz went on to work on his 2nd collaboration album “Lights, Camera, Action” released on hard copy in March of 2009. This project was with a Queens rapper known as Yung Hollywood. The album was sonically well put together, which consisted of 12 R&B/HipHop tracks together & 2 solo tracks, 1 by Yung Hollywood & the other by Tco. Some of the beats were produced by Tco himself, GmanTheProducer & various other producers. Sadly, on April 9th 2009, tragedy hit Tco with the passing of his father. Being of Muslim religion, the custom is that the dead is buried the very next day after death. Unfortunately, Tco never made it to his father’s funeral. Instead of allowing himself to grieve & to be taken over by sadness, Tco used that as energy to move him forward with his career & not stop. In the summer of 2009, Tco & Yung Hollywood collaborated on Tco’s single called “Scandalous,” released August of 2009. Scandalous gained some popularity on Internet Radio in Germany, by a German DJ named DJ CrossStylez, who connected with Yung Hollywood thru social media of that time. Towards the end of 2009, while still promoting the Lights, Camera, Action LP as well as the single Scandalous, Tco went on to build his own recording studio & start his record label “Blak Asylum Records” with friend & co-founder Yves Vagery aka GmanTheProducer. After his studio was constructed & all the equipment installed, Tco recorded the 1st song there called “Get Down on The Floor” produced by Australian producer Nate Walker, in January 2010. Tco then began working on a project based around the sound of Get Down on The Floor. This next album to come would be a 7 song EP titled “(T)he(C)asual(O)ne” released in May 25th 2010. This was a compilation of 7 different sounds, tempos & styles of music, fusing a bit of 90’s R&B/Pop & HipHop, which did fairly well on the bandcamp platform as far as album sales. Creating this new feel of his music, Tco then went on to record his 5 songs, “Wild” EP released on hard copy in June of 2011, which had almost a similar feel to the previous body of work. The
titled track “WILD” (featuring Eric Sosa) stood out from the rest because it had a Rock & Roll mixed with Pop/Beach Boys type feel to it, which made Tco want to go a completely different direction at the time with his music. Tco started searching the net to find new production from producers he’s never worked with and came across a young producer by the name of “Sean Devine” on soundclick. Tco listened to his catalog of beats and was very Impressed with his style. He stumbled upon a beat that would lead up to be his next single to come called “Hotter Than You.” Released only on hard copy in January of 2013, Tco hit the streets to promote & sell his new track. On an independent level the sales were decent. The single sold a total of 3,500 copies hand to hand. Tco enjoyed the crowd’s reaction to “Hotter Than You” which lead hm to shoot a music video for the song at the end of 2013, which was then later released on Youtube Oct 31, 2014. Always seeking more and being unique in his approach to creating music, Tco decided to take a 2 1/2-year hiatus to create his next album from the scratch. Producing almost 90% of the beats & collaboration with GmanTheProducer & even a feature with Reggae Super Star “Erup” along with a few other Queens artists, Tco recorded, mixed & mastered this 12 song LP titled “Bass, Horns in Harmony.” Tco Riaz had now fused the sounds of Jazz, R&B, HipHop, Rock & Roll with a little bit of Folk & Reggae to create this
interesting catalog. Although each song had a completely different feel & tempo each time, sonically the songs blended well with each other, kind of like how Michael Jackson has done in the past. Bass, Horns in Harmony release was done towards the end of December, 2017. Currently Tco Riaz is going for a more Caribbean sounding styles, infusing Reggae, Calypso & Afrobeat which he says seems to be the most comfortable and effortless style for him. Tco’s new wave will definitely turns it up a few notches on the decibel level and is his best work to date. It distinguishes Tco from his peers. Rather than fit in, Tco Riaz distinctly stands out. Like all of his work, this new venture is closer to amazing and far from simplistic and basic. Pop it in, press play and let the music take you away.