Review: “Featuring Ty Dolla $ign” Album by Ty Dolla $ign
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Ty Dolla $ign is a generational talent. He’s among names such as Drake and Lil Wayne when it comes to being able to make any track better once your vocals touch it. He's been on so many albums it’s impossible to keep count. That’s why it was only fitting that his album was titled “Featuring Ty Dolla $ign”.
I am an avid listener of the Joe Budden Podcast. Joe, Mal, Rory and Parks have spent a lot of time over the past year excited for a new Ty project. Joe specifically has spoken about wanting to hear more music from Ty similar to his “Free TC” mixtape from 2015. For people who shared Joe’s sentiment, this album may not be what they were looking for. (Joe actually came on the podcast and said he hated this album.)
I personally enjoyed this album because I had no specific expectations coming in aside from dope music. The way I would describe it is it seems like Ty called in every industry favor he’d been owed over the last 5 years and used them for this album. The project features over 20 different artists ranging from lyricists such as Big Sean and Kanye, to wavy rappers like Roddy Rich, Quavo and Young Thug, to singers like 6LACK, Jhené Aiko and Kehlani.
With 25 tracks and tons of features, the album almost certainly has at least one or two tracks for everybody. You could throw this project on at a party/kickback, put it on shuffle and I don’t think anyone would be disappointed.
The reason I can understand someone not loving this project is because it feels more like a playlist/mixtape rather than an album. Albums typically are concise and focused on a particular theme and sound. Also, with albums, the main artist is typically the person you hear the majority of the time. This project essentially has every sound and every artist on it. It feels less like a Ty Dolla $ign album and more like one of DJ Khaled’s summer compilation projects like “Major Key” or “Father of Asahd”.
For what the project is, it’s really good. Ty makes good music and is great at deciding who would sound good on what track. There aren't many, if any, bad songs on the album. Even the more experimental, EDM type track “Ego Death” performs well in the right environment. If Ty’s goal on this project was to try and place himself in the conversation of most versatile artist out right now, I feel like he succeeded.
For me, my absolute favorite track on the album is “Track 6” which features Anderson .Paak, Kanye West and Thundercat. Maybe it’s because I’m such a .Paak stan, but I think that song is the main standout, Aside from that, I also enjoyed “By Yourself” featuring Jhene and Mustard as well as “Lift Me Up” featuring Future and Young Thug.
Ty displays his typical brand of smooth and wavy singing throughout the entire project while also reminding us of his ability to pick features, structure a project and choose dope production. Even if this wasn’t necessarily what you were expecting from the album, I feel it’s still incredibly enjoyable and replayable. Although I will say I’m interested to see if Ty ever does drop another album similar to “Free TC”.