“The microphone is a pedestal,” declares rapper Devon Wade, who is better known by his stage name, R.I.C.O. Marvelous. “And it’s up to you to choose what you do on that pedestal. We tell the message of young men. It’s our chance to tell our story, women, parties, family, love, loss, and brotherhood. Four guys, who came from the hood, but chose to make the right choices and went to college. The journey. The struggle. Life, through a young man’s eyes.”

The journey of these young men, three rappers and a singer, began by accident, or maybe fate. The group, consisting of R.I.C.O. Marvelous, a laid back former basketball player from Harlem, New York and his friends; Trevor Shamblee (T-Sham), the former linebacker for Fresno State from Southside Jamaica Queens; Alex Lindsay (A-Treez), a Mass Communications major from Salinas California; and singer Davion Baker (Day-Day), an engineering major from L.A.

They had all known each other from school, but it wasn’t until one not-so-random day that their musical talents were entwined together.

“I was at Day-Day's house when he asked me to go to the store with him,” explains R.I.C.O. Marvelous. “We arrived at Guitar Center and he bought a mike and a compressor. I've always rapped as a hobby since the age of eleven. I didn't know that Day-Day was into music. He had been recording, on his own, at his apartment. We got back to his place and we started fooling around with some tracks. I ended up making a song later that night. There was a party going on in the same apartment complex downstairs where T-Sham happened to be at. I showed him the track, and he started to come over to Day-Day's place looking to do music. The next day I'm at work and I get a call from T-Sham like, ‘Yo! Me and Day-Day found this crazy track, its called 'Cali.' He’s singing the hook, and I already wrote my sixteen to it. When you get off, come listen to it.’ I was like, ‘Oh Word? ‘Aight bet.’ So went over when I got off. The song was crazy! I was like ‘Yo I gotta get on this!’ I laid my part down. So we had two 16's, and the chorus laid down. Then we were like, ‘Ok...what are we gonna do with this last 16?’ Day-Day said, ‘I got it, my dude A-Treez could finish it off.’ A-Treez came over the next day and laid his part down and we finished the song. From there we showed everyone we knew.”

Word traveled quickly and their track began gaining rave reviews from their friends.

“T-sham called a friend of his who happened to be an A&R for a label. He emailed her the songs, and she listened to it while we were on speaker phone, we were nervous to say the least!” The four friends, turned aspiring artists, waited with baited breath. There was a ten second pause after the song was finished. “It felt like 10 minutes!” R.I.C.O. Marvelous exclaims. “We were all looking at each other waiting for her response.”

The words that broke the silence were, “Fellas, that song is crazy!”

“We started jumping around the room like we won a championship or something. You should've seen it! Then she said, ‘What do you call yourselves?’” Up to this point the guys had not even formally formed a group and naming themselves had not been something they had considered. “We talked and decided to do this music thing. We figured there was nothing out there in the industry like us, three rappers and a singer, we needed a name.”

“We were untitled for a couple days until I was driving and thought to myself. ‘What are we?’ That's when I came up with N.Y.C.A cause we are two dudes from New York, and two dudes From California. It’s been a crazy ride ever since!”

“What makes us different is that we mesh all our styles so well,” Says R.I.C.O. Marvelous. “I'm really laid back. Focused, but at the same time, love to party and have fun! A-Treez is the youngest. He is a real ‘music head.’ Any new song, he has it before anyone. T-Sham is the oldest. He is like the ‘older brother’ of the group. He and I compete with each other on who can be the ‘flyest’, something New Yorkers do. Day-Day is a comedian, 24/7 laughter when you are with him.”

“Right now we are finishing up our album. We have a few more recording sessions to do. We are also going to put together a Demo. At the same time we are doing shows all over California, trying to get as much exposure as possible.”