Introducing Rico Vale (2011)
On September 24th, 1995, Ricardo Vale Jenkins was born in Atlanta, Georgia. At the same time that he was growing up, Atlanta saw their hip hop scene blow up. Rico would hear artists like Outkast, Ludacris and T.I. and instantly fell in love with rap. He would start freestyling in the hallways of school with his buddies, but at 15, he decided to finally learn how to make his own music. Using his dad’s crappy laptop, Rico taught himself how to make a beat and how to mix a song. Rico’s family were lower class, meaning Rico would have to try and make some extra money for the family. He was a waiter, but when he was off the clock, he was a drug dealer. These jobs were able to give him enough money to buy the equipment needed to record his first mixtape.
On July 2nd, 2010, Rico Vale released his first single, ‘Red Dot’. The song was nowhere near touching the charts, however, it did gain him some underground traction. Rico kept his head down and worked on the rest of the tape, knowing the attention he would draw soon. On September 3rd, 2010, Rico dropped his second single, ‘Get Him Gone’. The song got him a lot of underground attention, but one man in particular stood out. DJ Holiday, who had worked with Gucci Mane the past couple of years, reached out to Rico and set up a studio session. This studio session produced 6 brand new songs, including one with another underground rapper, Curren$y. This collab would be called ‘Still Up’ and was released on November 12, 2010. This track gave Rico a level of exposure he had never had before. His career was looking bright.
Throughout the end of 2010 and the start of 2011, DJ Holiday and Rico continued to hold studio sessions. DJ Holiday even agreed to host the album to try and get Rico’s name even more out there. Rico barely had enough to pay for the mixtape campaign, so he resorted to dealing drugs again. However, this time, it was a setup. In late January 2011, Rico Vale was sentenced to 2 years in prison. With little to no money to his name, the mixtape could potentially be his only source of income for a while. “Southline Nights” released on February 11, 2011. While it did make a decent amount of change, it was nowhere near close to paying Rico’s bail. Rico had gained a lot of momentum from the mixtape and he couldn’t just squander that. So, to raise money and to give the fans what they want, he started recording music behind bars.