FEATURING - TY DOLLA SIGN$

Ty Dolla $ign gave us the inside scoop on his highly anticipated third album, collaborating with Kanye West and keeping the nation’s spirits high.

Devon Preston

In one word, Ty Dolla $ign is versatile. Not only has he shown different sides of his sound through his own chart-topping singles, his vocals have complemented hits by Fifth Harmony, Post Malone and Megan Thee Stallion. “I saw a tweet where someone said, ‘Ty’s voice is like fucking hot sauce, it’s good on anything,’” Ty explains. “I was like, ‘What am I doing on these other songs that I haven’t been doing on my albums?’ With my new album, I made sure to include all the frequencies of my voice and whatever I was giving away to Kanye or Mustard, I made sure to have it covered.”

Ty has been working on his follow-up to “MihTy” for two years, during which time he has been mulling over a plan to make this his biggest success to date. Initially, he’d announced it would be titled “Dream House,” to correspond with his “Beach House” trio. Yet, just a few weeks before the album’s release, Ty changed the name to “Featuring Ty Dolla $ign,” breaking the cycle and leaning into the success of his feature work.

“Featuring Ty Dolla $ign” began as a rough concept and Ty admits there were roughly 700 songs on the cutting room floor. Being locked down because of the pandemic pushed him to narrow in on his vision. Personal tragedy struck Ty in April, but within his sorrow, he found inspiration. “I lost my grandmother in the pandemic,” Ty shares. “When my parents broke up and my mom and I weren’t seeing eye-to-eye, they sent me to live with my grandmother. She was the cool grandmother that let me smoke weed in the house, invite whoever I wanted over, and have my studio in the back room. She’s the reason I was able to fully find myself as an artist and you can definitely feel the pain in the album.”