Ty Dolla $ign: "Saved" [ft. E-40]

It’s probably no coincidence that Ty Dolla $ign’s peak—namely, the stretch between his magical 2012 Beach House tape and its 2013 sequel—happened to overlap with molly’s reign as rap’s intoxicant du jour. Not to say he didn’t earn it: he’s a multi-instrumentalist descended from funk royalty, and easily one of the best R&B songwriters out, even if he doesn’t often get his due credit. (Chris Brown’s infuriatingly catchy “Loyal”? A Dolla $ign song in all but name.)

Still, Ty’s music is pure MDMA in R&B form: sleazebag afterhours fade into bleary watercolor sunrises. He turned a question regarding optimal hoe-to-cabana-square-footage ratio into a sun-dappled ratchet canticle. He made one of 2013’s best R&B songs devoted to being mildly annoyed that two girls he was playing showed up at the same club (conceptually, the yin to “Same Girl”’s yang). The man can turn water into, uh, molly-water.

“Blase”, Ty’s previous single from his forthcoming Free TC album, exists instead in the Codeine Age, rap’s current toxin of favor. It’s a great fit for the past year of fucked-up, dispassionate rap singles. But “Saved”, his latest, is exactly what I look to a Ty Dolla $ign single for: a house-inspired, proudly douchey ratchet-&-B club jam (with Mustard on the beat, naturally). If that sounds familiar, you’re probably thinking of “Paranoid”, of which this song is an obvious reprisal. But if Ty wants to make a lifetime of “Paranoid” sequels, I will gladly accept, paired with a vintage 2013 molly and tonic. Plus, this version has E-40 shouting, “Bitch, I ain’t Rescue Ronnie!”

Comments are closed.