Ty Dolla $ign started racking up hits at the dawn of the 2010s, first with one of his many featured appearances and then with headlining singles on which his sly, explicitly hedonistic style of contemporary R&B was put on full display. After assisting the "worldwide underground" likes of
Sa-Ra and
Erykah Badu,
Ty reached the mainstream through
YG's "Toot It and Boot It" (2010), continued to gain hits as a collaborator, and as a solo artist narrowly missed the Top Ten with full-length projects such as
Free TC (2015) and
Beach House III (2017). Since then, he has topped the Hot 100 with
Post Malone's "Psycho" and teamed up with
Jeremih for
MihTy (both 2018), and issued his third LP, the Top Ten Billboard 200-charting
Featuring Ty Dolla $ign (2020). In 2021, he collaborated with
dvsn for
Cheers to the Best Memories.
The singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, born Tyrone Griffin, Jr. -- the son of Tyrone Griffin, a musician who played with
Lakeside and
Teena Marie -- started making moves during the 2000s in his native Los Angeles. As one-half of Ty & Kory, the younger Griffin appeared on
Sa-Ra's The Hollywood Recordings,
Erykah Badu's New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War, and
Shafiq Husayn's
Shafiq En' A-Free-Ka, as well as
Black Milk's Popular Demand. He reached the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in 2010 with
YG's "Toot It and Boot It," for which he provided the hook. A pivotal moment, it preceded constant studio activity that resulted in solo and collaborative output issued throughout the decade.
Ty Dolla $ign made his major-label debut on Atlantic in 2013 with "Paranoid," which eventually went multi-platinum. "Or Nah," the follow-up, became his second single to hit the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot R&B Songs chart, and quickly went multi-platinum. Additional singles and appearances on commercial and underground releases alike led to the November 2015 release of
Free TC, his debut album. Dedicated to his incarcerated brother, the guest-loaded set debuted at number 14 on the Billboard 200, boosted by "Blasé," "Saved," and "Wavy," all certified gold or platinum tracks.
During the next two years,
Ty branched out stylistically as an accessory to pop hits such as
Fifth Harmony's "Work from Home," the
Suicide Squad: The Album smash "Sucker for Pain," and
Jason Derulo's "Swalla."
Major Lazer and
Nick Jonas were also among the artists who enlisted his services, though these pop and club efforts were balanced out with assists for the likes of
Fat Joe,
2 Chainz, and
Meek Mill. As lead artist, the commercial mixtape
Campaign arrived just ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and became a Top 30 hit, highlighted by "No Justice," a sober protest song recorded with his still-jailed brother.
Beach House III, Griffin's second proper album, was teased with genre-hopping singles involving
Lil Wayne and
the-Dream ("Love U Better"), and
Damian Marley and
Skrillex ("So Am I"). It hit number 11 upon its October 2017 release.
Griffin continued to excel primarily as a supporting artist for the next few years. Following a slew of collaborative one-offs highlighted by
Post Malone's Hot 100-topping "Psycho" and
Khalid's likewise multi-platinum "OTW," he and
Jeremih partnered to jointly release the album
MihTy.
Ty co-starred on well over a dozen tracks in 2019, such as
Kehlani's "Nights Like This,"
Megan Thee Stallion's number 11 hit "Hot Girl Summer," and
Skrillex's "Midnight Hour," the last of which was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Dance Recording. In 2020, he headlined a clutch of singles, including July's "Ego Death," featuring
Kanye West,
FKA Twigs, and
Skrillex, and in August's charting "Expensive," on which he was joined by
Nicki Minaj. Both tracks paved the way for his third full-length,
Featuring Ty Dolla $ign, which arrived that October and landed at number four on the Billboard 200. His first U.S. Top Ten debut, the album featured several more guest-featuring singles, including "Spicy" with
Post Malone and "By Yourself" with
Jhené Aiko and
Mustard.
The following year, after appearing on their 2020 album
A Muse in Her Feelings,
Ty recorded a full-length collaboration with Canadian R&B duo
dvsn titled
Cheers to the Best Memories. ~ Andy Kellman