From IndieMusicRx.Com's Featured Artist: TiKkO exclusive interview: Rx:How long have you been rapping? TiKkO: I been writing for as long as I can remember. My mom was listening to Whodini and UTFO before I was born so raps just something thats always been there with me. The youngest of 4 surrogate brothers, but my mom’s only son, I was easily influenced into sharing thier love for hiphop. ... Rx:What does your ‘stage name’ mean? TiKkO: Nothing really, to be honest. Me and my brother Ricky were working on a roofing crew and he just started calling me Tikko. I was going by Rome still at the time but he never stopped calling me Tikko. He told me he spells it “TKO”. I started using the name in his memory Ricky passed last year. I spelled it so that it would be pronounced correctly but left every other letter (T-K-O) capitalized cause that’s how he wanted it. Rx:What has been the most positive thing that has happened in your career? TiKkO: The love my music gets. I’ve performed in the same show as the legendary Proof and had the privelage of someone that great taking out the time to spit knowledge to me about this business, done live fm radio interviews, freestyled on the “216 vs 313? DVD, and alot of other things but nothing compares to the love a good crowd gives. That’s why I love closing every performance with “Kiss Goodbye“. Its a crazy feeling to read my lyrics off the lips of the crowd. Rx:What people or events have shaped your music and what you have become today as an artist? TiKkO: There isnt anything that hasn’t influenced my music. Everything I’ve ever been through goes into my music and makes it what it is, love it or hate it. ... Rx:What would you like to do with your musical talents? TiKkO: I know music cant cure disease in Africa or end the recession so I just want to make music people can feel and hopefully be successful enough to give back to my mom who gave up so much for me as a kid. Rx:Who is your biggest influence (either musically or personally) TiKkO: Slick Rick, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, LL, KRS1 they all influenced me but Joe and Ricky above all have had the biggest impact on my music. Not only did they help mold me into who I am when they were alive but the loss of them molded me into who I am today and who I am in life is who I am when I write. I can’t write a single song without wondering what they’d think. ... [Special Thanks to the staff at IndieMusicRx.Com]