Charlotte, North Carolina rapper Tino Szn is only 16 years old and is already an underground legend in the making.
Most recently Tino collaborated with notable rapper $not on his latest single “Vice.” While still in school, Tino is accomplishing more than many rappers hope to achieve, by balancing both music and his education. Tino began making music three years ago at the age of 14 and in a short span of time has already accumulated over 258k Spotify streams. Tino’s also been featured in prominent music blogs such as Lyrical Lemonade and Elevator Magazine. At only 16, Tino is creating a name for himself and isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Check out our full interview with the budding rapper below:
The Knockturnal: When did you start making music?
Tino Szn: I started making music in 2018 when I was 14 years old, I was in 8th grade. I just always had an interest in music and used to wonder what is it like to be an artist.
The Knockturnal: When did you know this is something you want to pursue seriously?
Tino Szn: Around 15 or 16, which was last year.
The Knockturnal: Is it hard to balance school and music?
Tino Szn: Sometimes, it depends. These teachers will sometimes assign 1500 assignments that’s why I’m looking forward to going to actual school even for only 2 days so the work won’t be as stressful on me.
The Knockturnal: What’s been your biggest challenge you’ve faced musically?
Tino Szn: Probably getting my last tape together because there were a lot of songs that I wanted to be on there, but my team was like you gotta choose these so I had to adjust to the sound that was gonna be put out and I had to adjust myself to like it.
The Knockturnal: Can you tell us about your new song, “Vice” with $not?
Tino Szn: It’s a banger. A lot of people ask me how I secured it. He literally just DM’d me one day in July and said I’m hard and asked me to send him something.
The Knockturnal: Do you have plans to get in the studio together?
Tino Szn: Yeah, Definitely once Covid is over.
The Knockturnal: What have been the 3 biggest moments in your career so far?
Tino Szn: The Feature with $not is one of them, having my first actual label meeting in May of last year and dropping Pegasus Kid 3 because that’s when I started to realize I’m actually getting good at this.
The Knockturnal: What are you currently working on?
Tino Szn: I’m working on my next tape called Lone Wolf, that’s gonna be a big project, which we’re gonna drop in May.
The Knockturnal: Can we expect more visuals?
Tino Szn: Yeah, definitely.
The Knockturnal: Where do you see your career at 21? 5 years down the road?
Tino Szn: I’m gonna be rich as hell and main thing for me is to be able to make an impact on the youth and set a good example for them.
