24hourhiphop.com gets a chance to chop it up with Rhode Island rapper Riko Rich.  If you dont know already he is our latest Next In Line. Riko Rich tells us about what he's got going on at the moment, We learn about his latest project and get to check out his music video. Riko Rich tells us about his life growing up and his musical influences as well. Check out the interview below and let us know what you think!

24HHH: Introduce yourself to everyone that doesn't already know who you are.

Riko Rich: What's up everybody my name is Riko Rich CEO and artist of Freshmen World Entertainment.

24HHH: How did you come up with your Artist name? Tell us about it.

Riko Rich: The name RIKO was a childhood nickname one of my mother's friends gave me. She use to call me Riko, short for rico suave because of my Puerto Rican background.

24HHH: Where are you from, and what was it like growing up there?

Riko Rich: I was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island.  Rhode Island use to be a place where people would leave the madness in their state to come here and raise their kids, but now everybody is trying to run from the madness here and go somewhere else.  For it being such a small city and state, we got a lot of violence and corruption going on here.   I pretty much kept to myself  growing up , then I started running with a gang, getting kicked out of school, and being involved in everything else in that lifestyle.  Coming up you always had to prove your self, you had to be tougher, or just as tough as the next.   After seeing people my age at the time  getting locked up or killed like it was nothing, I told myself,  'I gotta do something different" and that's when I started to take my music more serious.

24HHH: Who were you raised by? Tell us your family situation. Got any brothers, sisters, or any siblings? Tell us about your childhood, and how it impacted your music?

Riko Rich: I grew up in a Muslim household with my two younger brothers and two younger sisters.  I was raised  by both my mother and grandma (god rest her soul).  We were fortunate enough to not want for anything but hard times was no stranger either.  With music being my outlet its only natural for my childhood to have an impact on my music. Stuff that I've lived and experienced that was hard on me, I free myself from it when I rap about it . Not only are you getting good music your getting apart of me, hearing my struggle, my pain ,etc. That's why I named my mix tape Truth B Told, it's an honest reflection of who I am.

Check out Freshmen World – Hit Em (Official Video)

24HHH: What age did you start making music?

Riko Rich: I was 16 when I actually started recording but I was 10 or 11 when I wrote my first rap.

24HHH: What inspired you to pursue making music?

Riko Rich: My aunt was who inspired me to start rapping.  She was a rapper and thought I should do it because of my love for it.  I do it today because I have a passion for it, because I know how it feels to be going through something in life good or bad and having music relate to you at that moment.  I know I have that same effect on people because the people who've heard me tell me.  Truth be told, I might like the attention more than anything (laughs).

24HHH: What artists/producers do you work with? Or rubbed shoulders with?

Riko Rich: With producers I worked with my boy Geo, and my younger brother Master Plan who produced a few tracks on Truth B Told but will be more involved on my next project. I also worked with Scino of the Heart Stoppers whose done stuff for Faboulous and worked with Troy Ave on his recent project. As far as artist, just the ones on my team, my brother Chris Castro and Smash Calhoun.

24HHH: What else you got coming out? New Album? or Mixtape/EP?

Riko Rich: I'm always working, always recording,  putting out freestyles, recording new music putting it out on Facebook ,tumblr, I live in the studio.  I'm already half way into my next project, but right now I'm really pushing Truth b Told as much as I can with singles and videos to build my buzz before I put that out.  The stuff I got coming is even better. 

Check out Riko Rich – Truth B Told (Mixtape)

24HHH: Tell us about your newest single "Hit Em", how did you come up with that, share us the story?

Riko Rich: "HIT EM" came about with me and Chris Castro (co-founder of Freshmen World) in the studio late night trying to out rap each other, its always friendly competition within the group.  After recording we started to shoot the video right in the studio. 

24HHH: Any new travel plans, what you got going on?

Riko Rich: Absolutely! Since I put out Truth B Told on Datpiff,  and a  few other sites I've been getting alot of feedback from label reps and A&Rs .   I'm also going to be touring all throughout the tri- state area and down in Miami so if you looking to see a great show come out and show some love.

24HHH: What is the biggest thing to happen in your career?

Riko Rich: My biggest accomplishment so far was winning a local competition that led to me and my team opening up for G-Unit on a short tour back in 2003.  That really opened some doors for us but because of some legal issues I was out the picture for several years.  Now that I'm back I've just been going hard.

24HHH: Where can people find you? 

Riko Rich: You can find me on Istagram @rikorich, facebook , check me out @thisisriko on tumblr, sound cloud I'm everywhere .   It's all about grinding for me this year, getting in front of as many people as I possibly can to be heard.  My focus isn't how to separate myself from other artist I think you do that just by staying true to who you are.  My focus as an independent artist is to kill em with consistency, you gonna hear me one way or the other because of my work ethic, if you don't like me or my music like Wale said "you gonna love me for my ambition".

24HHH: Any last words or shout outs?

Riko Rich: Shout to 24hourhiphop I'm loving the site keep doing y'all thing. Shout out to Master Plan,  Smash my brother and Freshmen affiliate, free my brother Castro  , shout out to Geo for all the help, Scino,  shout my whole Fam and Providence lets get it!