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California rapper E-40 is loud and loopy on "Saved," like he’s auditioning to be the newest OxiClean spokesperson.
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Part of the reason Free TC sounds different from past Dolla $ign projects is the sheer number of guests on the album. Free TC shows new range for Ty Dolla $ign, but it’s still a range that still only makes sense in Ty’s usual sphere of self-constructed excess. Through it all, Griffin assumes a monotone R&B sing-song cadence, shoving words into the beat where they don’t quite fit. "Horses in the Stable" somehow manages to sound like a country western song sung by a rap cowboy caught up in the "pussy like quicksand." "Credit," which opens with the line "Gotta stop talkin' to them bitches" sounds like an R. "Solid" has Ty working more subdued vocals than usual, lisping his steel "S’s" against an acoustic guitar. Lyrically, Free TC is very much the same, but it sounds more mature. Ty Dolla $ign’s early mixtapes were fun but not exactly innovative, and they struggled to find material outside of spilled drinks and seduction. DJ Mustard’s tin-trap production is right at home bundled against a classic Ty Dolla $ign conundrum: "She wanna fuck now but I wanna fuck later." But the second track, "Saved," overturns that foundation in favor of partying. Kendrick Lamar’s long, breathless verse in the middle adds a balancing weight to the track without overwhelming its inherent pride: "Let me hit the pawn shop, Mama said we need a loan / God, let me dedicate this to the 80 percent that ain’t never coming home." Because this is the album’s first track, it would make sense to assume this is what Free TC will be about: injustice, lapsed religion, and finding inspiration in a place while simultaneously being crushed by that place. The album opens with "LA," a song about finding strength and comfort in South LA while also trying to escape from it. It does this by harnessing subtlety, and Free TC is more willfully subtle than any of Ty Dolla $ign’s past work - while proving that he still has a singular way with a sex jam. So Ty’s debut album, Free TC - named after Griffin’s younger brother who is (wrongfully, according to Griffin) serving a life sentence for murder - attempts to slyly sneak back to the front. In 2012, his sound felt like the start of something new and uncomfortable, but now, artists like The Weeknd and Fetty Wap have pulled ahead with their own strange cadences and debauched vocals, and Griffin is suddenly behind the pack.
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Ty Dolla $ign (born Tyrone William Griffin, Jr.) planted himself somewhere between Houston club rap and Atlanta trap, plus he sang in a soft, pliant, decidedly ungrimy tenor. The tracks, grimy and slippery, sounded like they came from the kind of person who would stand just a little too close to a stranger at a strip club. In 20, Ty Dolla $ign, the West Coast almost-rapper who had recently signed to Atlantic Records, released two mixtapes in quick succession: Beach House and Beach House 2.