Who Is Ty Dolla $ign?

When "Toot It and Boot It" came out in 2009, it was rapper YG who scored a Def Jam deal (and a newer video, and a remix with Snoop and 50). But the bassline-driven beat and hooky chorus—catchy and undeniable as they were—were created by a singer/songwriter by the name of Ty Dolla $ign, an artist whose connection to music runs deeper than this one massive hit.

Ty has been in and around music for years. His father was an established, successful musician, and he grew up a multi-instrumentalist. In the past year, Ty's profile as a solo artist has grown considerably, culminating in a playfully pimpish anthem "My Cabana" (now nearing 60,000 views on YouTube) and follow-up mixtape Beach House, which delivers on the promise of the single, blending hip-hop and R&B with a hint of '90s pop-rock melodicism.

Like a less self-serious version of The Weeknd, Ty is one of the most promising artists to work in this particular R. Kelly-style R&B vein since The-Dream broke a few years back.

But who is Ty Dolla $ign?

As told to David Drake (@somanyshrimp)

Growing Up in Los Angeles and Around Music

Ty Dolla $ign: “I’m from L.A. South Central area. I grew up [my] first couple years in the jungles, and then I moved to the Valley. After the Valley, I came back to L.A., lived in Baldwin Hills for a while, Beverly Hills for a while. I moved to New York, I stayed in Utah for a while. I’ve been everywhere man. I’m from L.A. though.

“As a kid, my pops did music too. He was in a group called Lakeside back in the day. He would just have me around all his friends. They’d be doing hella music, smoking hella weed and shit. That’s when I was growing up, too. Meeting cats like Earth, Wind & Fire, The Isley’s. One of my uncles played in The Isley’s. I went to all their shows. My dad also used to work for this cat called Jon B. Before he got signed to Babyface, he used to always just be at my house recording his shit. I used to see all these cats doing music shit. Of course, that’s probably what got me into it.

“[I started making music] probably since I was like three. They got pictures of me on the Casio keyboard just making up shit and my dad recorded where I was like making a song when I was like four. Like actually coming up with lyrics and playing some shit with the Casio drums. I’ve just loved music ever since I can remember.”

Hanging With 50 Cent and Breaking Into the Industry

Ty Dolla $ign: “I can’t tell you the exact age [I first made a full track], but I think I was probably like 10 or 11. Me and my homeboy Troy, his name is Troy Johnson, he’s a pretty big producer now, too. His dad was also in this other hot band called Brothers Johnson with like Quincy Jones. He had more equipment than me, he had some four-track and shit. And then we just recorded a song. I don’t remember the name of it or how it sounded, nothing like that. But we’ve been working since back then, bro.

“When I moved out of L.A. I was probably 16, 17. New York was fun, man. It was just me and the homies out there just doing beats and shit. Fucking with girls. I was hanging out with 50 Cent at that time. It was cool. [Laughs.] [I was living] In Brooklyn, between Flatbush and Brownsville. [I was in the studio] ‘cause I did beats, and they told me to come over and play some beats. So we were at Sony studios a lot.

“They cut songs and whatever but none of them got placed. They never came out.

“I ended up getting a situation back in L.A. with Sony through this guy named Venus Brown. I used to mess with him and this company called Buddah Brown [Entertainment], will.i.am and Justin Timberlake and all that. They signed me and my partner Kory, we had this group called Ty & Kory. That shit ended up falling through. Then after that, that’s when I met YG. History was made right there. [Laughs.]

“I had some stuff come out in movies, a couple of moving scoring. I did one on the movie The Cookout and on the movie Biker Boyz. Background music in the movies and helping with the score."

Influences and His Style of Music

Ty Dolla $ign: “2Pac is my favorite artist of all time. I liked Slum Village a lot back then, like J Dilla, he’s one of my favorite producers and artists. I’m like a hip-hop head type of dude. Mos Def, Talib Kweli, that whole Rawkus Records scene, that’s my type of shit.

“I also like cats like Prince. Just like his production, he’s kind of like the same thing as me. He sings, he produces, he plays all types of instruments. That’s what I’m after. I wouldn’t wear that type of clothes or wear my hair like that. [Laughs.] But as far as artistry, that’s the same type of dude I am.

“[My favorite DJ Quik project] is Safe + Sound, that whole album, and then the shit before that too...I can’t remember the name of it. But really all of Quik’s shit until, it was some point where I wasn’t really fucking with it no more. But I still fuck with him, I got some songs with him and shit. Like that dude is crazy, and I was actually in a music video with him and Suga Free last year [“Nobody”]. That’s the homie.

“There’s this station in L.A. called KROQ, and they just play all the dope shit. From Incubus to old school Nirvana, Maroon 5. Anybody that’s dope that can actually sing. There’s like some crazy rock shit out there though, guys that can really sing and play. I just like good music.

“People would call it rap, but I really don’t feel like I rap. There’s so many great rappers, like if we had to battle or some shit, they would just cream me. I don’t really consider myself a rapper, I just happen to have bars, or something like that. I still sing man, I’m a singer, ya feel me?”

Producing With His Crew, D.R.U.G.$.

Ty Dolla $ign: “[D.R.U.G.$.] is a group of guys. It’s me, my homeboy Chordz 3D, and my homeboy G Casso. We’re the founders of it. G Casso, R.I.P., some dude killed him or whatever and shit. Now, we got new members. We got my homeboy Nate 3D. Really on Beach House it’s me and Nate 3D. Then my homeboy Buddah [Shampoo]. My other homeboy Fuego, he’s also on there, and DJ Mustard. And DJ Dahi, he did ‘My Type Of Party’ for Dom Kennedy.

We got a whole army of dudes with each of us coming with our own sound. It’s crazy. We all just get together and produce sometimes, or separate. We all just took the name D.R.U.G.$. and now we’re spreading D.R.U.G.$. all over the land. [Laughs.]

“There’s not a particular method to production, it just depends on the day. Cats might come over or whatever and we might work together. Or say Fuego, like as far as "Diggin" on [Beach House], Fuego came up with this little melody. It was a really crazy sound, and then I took that and I sampled it and made the whole beat. Then I gave it back to him and he added some more little sweeps in Logic. And that’s like D.R.U.G.$. That’s how we do it.

“I rarely write shit down. On most of the those songs I record them either at my studio in Hollywood or at my house. Most of them at my house, that’s how I like to record. I’m at the crib, just wake up and start recording, just go in off the top of the head. That’s how I come up with songs, and whoever's in the room, I’ll ask them, ‘What should I say, what does this beat make you feel like?’ They’ll say something and I’ll just come up with the whole song.

“I know I’m talking that ratchet shit but really what ratchet music is right now is so simple, just anybody can do it. With these new beats, you don’t really have to know how to do music or play any instruments. You can just get a laptop and press a few buttons and you’ll have a beat. Then everybody thinks they’re banging.

“With my music I want to show off real music. That shit matters to me. Real melody and bass, guitar and keys. I got to add all that shit or else I’m just not comfortable. A lot of people tell me, ‘You should make it more simple. You don’t need all that.’ No, I need all that, ‘cause I know there is people out there that need that. That’s why I listen to a lot of rock music. I feel like they’re the best right now. They have the craziest melodies as far as singing and as far as music. The changes and everything. I just like good music.”

The Beach House Mixtape

Ty Dolla $ign: "‘Forbidden Fruit’ is myself, this cat named Dumb Bunny from Israel, and then my other homeboy Chuck. Basically like we all did a tab of playing guitar and I’d chop up what I liked and then place it.

“‘Young Honey,’ that’s actually me and my homeboy Nano together. Nano is also the dude that came up with the [phrase] 'toot it and boot it.' He told me, ‘Yo, say toot it and boot it.’ I’m like, what does that mean? ‘Fuck a girl and leave her and shit.’ He wrote that one, we also wrote the other song on there with me, Dom Kennedy and T. Mills, ‘Another One.’ Nano came up with that line, ‘She says she love me, I’m no dummy, all she want is dick and money.’ [Laughs.] That shit's crazy. Say I’ll have like the hook and I’ll write my verse, he’ll say, ‘Say this, say that.’ That’s how the songs always come. Whoever I’m in the room with.

“‘Another One,’ I actually recorded that one at my grandma’s house. We were just over there and I had my laptop and a mic. I came with the hook to this beat by my homeboy Cardo—he did a lot of Wiz Khalifa shit. He sent me a folder of beats and that one stood out. And I just came up with the song. I don’t know how I thought about that but I did it. [Laughs.]

“‘My Cabana,’ that was just like...one day I was just chilling and I made the beat. I sampled this song from a dude named Zedd, he’s like a house producer. I listen to a lot of house music. I sampled the drop on a song called ‘Break’n A Sweat,’ where he had also sampled Skrillex and The Doors. I took it and I slowed it way down, added some swag-ass drums to it, and then for some reason I just heard in my head the Mint Condition [“Breakin’ My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes)”] horns. So I took those and chopped them up and then tuned them to the other sample and it just ended up working out.

“Nate came through and he was like, ‘That shit is fire.’ He added some sweeps and shit, and then we were just vibing to the beat. I don’t remember how we came up with the ‘My Cabana’ shit but it just came. It was me, Nate and Buddha. I do have a cabana on my deck in the back of my crib, and there was girls constantly coming through and all that shit. I guess it just came with the song somehow.

“I don’t know how the hook came, it just came. We were just looking at the cabana. [Sings.] My cabana my cabana, how many girls can I fit. I don’t know. It was just so crazy.

“Probably about like 12 or 13 [hoes fit in the cabana]. 14 maybe. If they’re a little thick, like 10. The skinny ones, maybe I can get like 15 in there. [Laughs.]”

Dealing With Labels and Signing to Atlantic Records

Ty Dolla $ign: "I was working at Atlantic a lot because of this dude named Shawn Barron. I was working with everybody. Mike Caren, Shawn Barron, the homie Jeff over there, like everybody. And everybody was trying to sign me, they were just trying to figure out how to do it. ‘Cause I make house music, I make hip-hop shit, I make R&B shit, but they’re like, ‘We don’t know which way.’ I met with a couple other record companies like Def Jam, Warner Brothers, Interscope. Everybody was feeling me. They wanted to sign me. They were just like, ‘We’re trying to figure out what to do with you.’

“It was this one lady, Karen Kwak, she works at Def Jam, she was like, ‘If you could just give me one sound then that would be the shit.’ I took that advice and made the Beach House shit which is more of one sound. But then, I was just working with Shawn Barron so much that he offered me a great deal, so I took that one. [Laughs.]

“I was always an artist. I always had my own songs. Really, ‘Toot It & Boot It’ was my song. I gave it to YG because he had an opportunity to get a deal with Def Jam. If I hadn’t done that, who knows what I would be like now. I was just like, YG needs a single, everybody in the streets was loving that song. I’m like, he can have it, that can be YG’s. It was me and my homeboy’s, my cousin TeeCee4800, we were originally on the song, then we put YG on there. So that took us there, that was a blessing.

I was just making hella songs and people were feeling them, so I’ll just keep on doing it. Once I put out that ‘All Star’ and saw people were fucking with, I just made a mixtape. That’s when I came out with House On The Hill and ever since then we’ve just been going in.”

The Future

Ty Dolla $ign: “Coming up, I'm working on a new tape already. Whoop! 2. That’s me and Joe Moses. Before Beach House I also put out another tape called Whoop! and that was our collab tape, like rapping and singing. This is gonna be the sequel to that. That’s more geared toward the ratchet shit, the uptempo dance club shit. Every time we put something out, it ends up playing on the radio. The single off [Whoop!] was ‘The Weekend.’ That shit's popping right now so everybody is fucking with it.

I’m trying to decide the name of my second mixtape for my solo shit. It might be Beach House 2 or it could be House On The Hill 2 or it could be a new name. I may think about putting out...I think the album is gonna be called Free TC, and I’m definitely gonna have another tape called $ign Language at some point. Like, Dolla $ign Language. [Laughs.]

“I have hella shit that’s yet to release. I have some songs that I was gonna put out on Beach House that [Atlantic] wanted to keep because they think they’re singles. I got a whole bunch of singles in the cannon, I’m just ready to fire them. That’s definitely what I’m trying to do with Atlantic too, like the Flo Rida effect. Not as far as making the house, poppy music, but as far as putting out hella dope ass singles.

“I have some [dance music] that I produced for this girl named Tulisa. She's from London. She’s like the biggest girl star out there right now. She used to be in this group called N-Dubz. She’s popping, and I got some shit with her. I got a couple placements coming out on her album, so that’s pretty dope.

“There’s this song called ‘Fumble’ by Trey Songz that I’m a writer on. Me and my homegirl Lady G wrote that, Bobby Brackins and shit. That shit's popping. It’s on his album Chapter V, and it’s supposed to be a single. I don’t know when they’re going to drop it but that shit's pretty crazy. It was gonna be a song for Beach House but I just gave it to him and that’s probably another reason why I got Atlantic loving me.

“I do live performances all the time. More so just the club shit with the DJ and me coming out and getting the shit turnt up. I’m gonna do a tour soon. I’m gonna go on the Dom Kennedy tour. I’m probably gonna do the same thing with me and a DJ. But after that, when I get back, I planning on doing my own tour and I’ll come with a band and the whole swag. It’s gonna be stupid.

“I’m in Atlanta right now and people out here be coming up to me like, ‘Are you Ty Dolla $ign?’ I’m like, 'Yeah,' and that shit is fucking crazy, bro. The Internet is something else. [Laughs.] Yeah, they all say ‘My Cabana.’ They say, ‘I got the new tape. I got Beach House,' and I’m like damn, I didn’t think people be fucking...my publicist was like, ‘You should be going in, bro.’ [Laughs.]”