Ty Dolla $ign
photo: toglenn · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Tyrone William Griffin Jr. grew up in South Central Los Angeles as the son of a musician who played in the funk band Lakeside, and he taught himself bass, guitar, keys, and drums by ear before turning to production and songwriting. He broke through in 2013 with the single 'Paranoid' and became one of his era's most in-demand hook singers and collaborators, prizing live instrumentation and stacked, harmony-rich vocal arrangements across a run of mixtapes and albums. His work threads West Coast funk and G-funk lineage through modern R&B and hip-hop, equally at home crafting a radio single or an intricate slow jam.
Ty Dolla $ign has credited K-Ci of Jodeci as a model for his signature ad-libbed vocal flourishes - the runs and 'ooh yeah' punctuations that decorate his hooks. You can also hear Jodeci's gospel-schooled, heavily stacked R&B harmony approach echoed in the way Ty layers his own background vocals.
listen forCue Jodeci's 'Freek'n You' and follow K-Ci's improvised, church-bred runs at the ends of lines, then drop into Ty's 'Or Nah' and catch the same off-the-cuff ad-lib curls answering the main vocal.
Ty Dolla $ign has named Prince as an influence and admired how he produced and played nearly every instrument on his own records; Ty, who taught himself bass, guitar, keys, and drums, similarly insists on live instrumentation and hands-on arrangement rather than leaning only on programmed beats. His funk-steeped Los Angeles upbringing put that self-contained-musician model in front of him early.
listen forPlay Prince's self-played 'I Wanna Be Your Lover,' where he cut nearly every part himself, then Ty's 'Famous' - hear the live, finger-picked guitar and stacked falsetto carrying the groove instead of a canned loop.
Ty Dolla $ign has placed DJ Quik within the West Coast funk lineage he draws from, tracing a line from Lakeside and Shalamar through Dr. Dre and Parliament to Quik. That live-bass, laid-back G-funk warmth - synth leads gliding over a rolling low end - surfaces in Ty's own smoother, funk-rooted productions.
listen forThrow on DJ Quik's 'Tonite' for that loping, live-feeling G-funk bounce, then Ty's 'LA' - hear the same warm West Coast pocket and unhurried groove sitting under the vocal.