“Anybody can use the f—ing laptop, but do you know where these sounds come from?” So declares Ty Dolla $ign in a video vignette (below) that’s part of Fender’s recently launched campaign on behalf of its American Professional instrument series.
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It turns out that ever since his dad (Lakeside band member Tyrone Griffin) gave Ty Dolla $ign his first Fender bass as a kid, the singer/rapper/songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist has grown into a fierce Fender bass fan. In fact, he now owns 14 of the basses. And when fans get their hands on his anticipated second studio album Beach House 3 — coming this summer, he promises — they’ll hear him playing a Fender American Professional Precision Bass on the set’s new tracks.
However, Ty still pulls out and plays his dad’s years-ago gift. “It’s all black and, of course, it now has a few scratches on it,” he tells Billboard. “But it’s still one of my favorite basses when it comes to recording. Shout-out to my dad for that.”
Ty bought his first Fender on his own back in 1999-2000. He was “playing bass in church at that time and really starting to get into the instrument,” he recalls. Of the 14 he currently owns, Ty says he’s “played some and use others in the meantime as art pieces in my house. I have them all hanging up in the hallways.”
Calling Fender a “classic brand,” Ty is a multi-instrumentalist who says he plays anything with strings, anything with keys and the drums. Essentially, he adds, “I play anything that I can make a beat on, whether it’s the wall or some house keys to create a shaker type of sound.”
It was YG’s debut hit “Toot It and Boot It” that brought Ty to national attention. The song, with its bass line-driven beat, was co-written and co-produced by Ty and also features his vocals. Ty has since racked up four platinum singles, including “Paranoid,” “Or Nah,” “Blasé” and “Sucker for Pain” from the Suicide Squad soundtrack featuring him along with Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Imagine Dragons, Logic and X Ambassadors.
Ty declined to reveal further details about Beach House 3. But the multi-tasker — featured on Fifth Harmony’s 2016 hit “Work from Home” — has been busy lending his voice to others’ recent projects, including Machine Gun Kelly, Lecrae, Ludacris and Tish Hyman.
“If the song makes me feel anything then I jump on it,” says Ty. “Even though it seems like I’m on every song that comes out, believe me, there are songs that come through that aren’t it for me.”