It’s a heartwarming and inspiring story of a young man overcoming adversity and hardship.

Rio Wyles is fast becoming the next big thing in rap, and like many he’s had to put in hard work and plenty of sweat to break through in the highly competitive music world — but what makes Rio’s story so inspiring is that he was diagnosed with autism as a young child and suffered a profound loss of language at age three-and-a-half.

The language slowly came back, but in an odd ritualistic, nonsensical way, causing children to shun him throughout his childhood and those close to him to worry that he would never be able to fully live an independent life.