The soft side to Ty Dolla $ign
Ty Dolla $ign answers the phone almost exactly how you’d imagine a hip hop artist would: ‘‘Yo yo yo, what’s poppin’?’’
But with Ty, real name Tyrone William Griffin Jr, you get the sense that the sleazy gangster Lothario persona he adopts on record and in interviews is a bit of a put on.
It’s not that the multiinstrumentalist doesn’t have street cred – growing up in LA, he was reportedly a Bloods member, and his younger brother’s in jail for murder.
But it’s hard to believe he’s that sinister when he talks about how much he’s enjoying having the time these days to pick up his daughter from school. Or when he talks – eloquently and insightfully – about music.
Ty was exposed to all kinds of music from an early age because his dad was in funk band Lakeside.
He remembers watching his father try to master a keyboard part for a show with Jermaine Jackson.
‘‘I guess he was trying to get this one part, and it was taking him a while to figure it out, and he went to the bathroom and then I just jumped up on his keyboard and played the exact part he was trying to play, and then that day he just started buying me keyboards and drum machines and guitars and everything,’’ he says.
Ty’s ear for music comes in handy today when he writes both writing both his own hits and for other musicians. He has been credited on songs from artists including Rihanna, Chris Brown, Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa.
‘‘I definitely have a big vocabulary when it comes to music. I know every genre, every instrument, from the 40s or all the way up until now, I’ve checked everything out. I own like 30k or 40k pieces of vinyl, I’m just really into it,’’ he says.
‘‘I definitely think my vocabulary gives me a longevity, you know? And a one-up on a lot of these other artists, who maybe rap or sing, or just do one thing.’’
Ty Dolla $ign plays Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in the coming week. Tickets from Ticketek.