NEW YORK (AP) — “It’s ‘Tycoon’ season,’” a beaming Ty Dolla $ign, declares.
It’s certainly. The creative R&B singer has simply launched his fifth studio album, his first full-length solo launch in 5 years. He selected “Tycoon” for its title as a result of the phrase encompasses his present mind-set. “It’s like (being at) the top of your game,” he says. “It’s like, not only have I done all the stuff you could do in artistry, (but) there’s still more to do.”
Name it confidence or swagger or showboating: The Grammy-nominated artist has a trove of multiplatinum information to his title from 2018 to the current, and lately, his controversial undertaking with Kanye West, $, launched two albums, “Vultures 1” and “Vultures 2” in 2024. They debuted at No. 1 and a couple of on the Billboard 200, respectively.
“Tycoon” Time
“Tycoon” is basic Ty Dolla $ign. The album is what he is made a reputation for himself doing: a set of ceaselessly catchy, NSFW R&B anthems about lust and love (each principally lechery), stacked with A-list collaborations: Quavo,Juicy J, 2 Chainz, Tyga, Travis Scott, Chloë — the listing goes on.
Additionally amongst them: Rappers Kodak Black and Ty Dolla $ign’s longtime kindred spirit YG. (Ty Dolla $ign and YG have labored collectively for quite a lot of years, definitely going again to 2010’s “Toot It & Boot It.”) For his latest album, the trio teamed up for “SMILE BODY PRETTY FACE.” It was one of many final songs to make “Tycoon,” says Ty Dolla $ign, “But when we started messing with the beat. I was like, ‘This has got to be YG.’”
There is a romantic component to the tune — with a few of his explicitly sexual posturing. The identical may be stated concerning the lead single to “Tycoon,” “All In,” the place Ty Dolla $ign’s wealthy baritone considers devotion to a accomplice. “They say love don’t cost a thing,” he swoons on the refrain. “And if it did, I’d go all in.”
“I’m always loving something,” he says. “It hasn’t all the way worked out for me yet.” Love, then, remains to be a relentless supply of inspiration — enriched by the tune’s pattern of Wayne Wonders’ 2002 reggae fusion observe “No Letting Go.”
Massive enterprise and an R&B comeback
For Ty Dolla $ign, this new period means being a enterprise “Tycoon” as properly. He is taken on his fair proportion of business endeavors — like launching a label, EZMNY, with Motown Data government Shawn Barron — and experiencing speedy success with its first signing, the R&B upstart Leon Thomas. His single, “Mutt,” hit No. 11 on the all-genre Billboard Sizzling 100 and No. 1 on its Sizzling R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.
Thomas instructed AP earlier this 12 months about working with Ty Dolla $ign: “I was around some epic legends in the field, and I feel like the best teacher is experience.”
“My goal there, with EZMNY, is to give the real artists a chance. Myself, I didn’t make it until I was 27 and I was always good. I was always making music,” Ty Dolla $ign says. “And I just wanted to reach back to people that are actually great.”
“There’s definitely going to be a comeback in R&B very soon,” he provides. “We’re talking Leon specifically.”
As for what else the longer term holds, it nonetheless stays to be seen if the oft-rumored “Vultures 3” will probably be launched. “There was a lot of music that was done. It could have been out at the time,” Ty Dolla $ign deflects. “I feel like we made the best music that was out at the time. I feel like we went No. 1, and it was a successful project, and it was fun … That was like a cool experience, to see that you could just do everything on your own time.”
Might the duo reunite? “Who knows what may happen in the future?” he says. “I’m open to whatever.”
For now, “It’s ‘Tycoon’ time,” he says. Quickly, Ty Dolla $ign will tour the album. Later down the road, his new documentary — titled “Nonetheless Free TC,” 10 years after his debut album “Free TC” — will hopefully get a wider launch. It premiered on the Tribeca Movie Competition this 12 months.
“Still Free TC” is about his brother, Massive TC, who’s at the moment incarcerated on a life sentence for homicide — wrongfully so, in keeping with the singer. However it additionally tells Ty Dolla $ign’s story in intimate element. It is about his journey to the highest and the mass incarceration system that also impacts his household.
“I’ve had a lot of friends and fans tell me that, like, ‘Yeah, you never show anybody for real. You never let anybody in.’ So, this is the time where I let everybody in,” he says of the movie. “I just feel like the people need to see it.”
And within the meantime, they’re going to have “Tycoon” to dive into.
“I just want people to feel inspired after they hear it. I want them to believe in themselves after they hear it,” he says. “And believe in me. I’m always going to give you the best of the best.”
