Everybody's coming from whatever to come to LA
to try to get a piece of this opportunity out here.
It's the City of Angels
It could take you anywhere
My grandparents moved out from Memphis with a thousand dollars to come here
and give us a chance. It was the greatest thing they could've ever done.
Rolling
A lot of people be like, "You know, all those fake ass niggas in LA,
dah dah dah." But guess what
Most of those people you're meeting are from out of town.
You haven't been past Wilshire, so you don't know, like, LA.
LA
Can you believe we fell in love In the city of LA
Ty Dolla $ign is a multiplatinum artist.
He's a singer, songwriter, and producer from Los Angeles.
He started releasing songs in 2011,
and soon after that, he had three hit singles,
songs that were being played in clubs all over.
But when he put out his debut album, "Free TC" in November 2015,
there were serious themes in the music.
That's the case with the opening track: "LA."
It's the city of angels
It could take you anywhere
Ty brought in a whole host of collaborators,
including Grammywinning artists like Kendrick Lamar,
Brandy and James Fauntleroy,
to make a denselylayered ode to his hometown.
LA, we fell in love
I'm Hrishikesh Hirway.
This is Song Exploder.
That'll be you. Cool.
And I'll be here.
This is intense.
I was wondering if we could start way back at the beginning of,
like, before you even had anything for a song.
Can you tell me about your brother and the title of the album
Yeah. My brother, his name is Gabreal, but everybody calls him TC.
He got locked up early on, probably like 18, 19,
for a murder that he didn't even commit.
Like, people get fucked with and coerced into saying some shit
that they didn't fucking do.
Being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people,
shit, you might get fucked over.
Since November 2006,
Big TC has been incarcerated in California state prisons.
He's serving a sentence of 67 years to life
for firstdegree murder.
An appeal was lost and parole was rejected.
Shit could go left really fast, and that happened to my bro
and hurt my family, set us back, and he's still in the situation.
With that album, I just wanted to bring awareness
and hopefully, we'll be able to change this narrative
and actually free TC.
I wanted to open the album with a song about the city
'cause that's where we're from
and I feel like that's the beginning of the story.
If we're going to talk about "Free TC," first of all,
we gotta talk about LA, where we came from.
In the songs earliest form, there was just a beat and a hook
written and sung by two brothers, Dominique and Darius Logan.
At the time, they were called D&D,
but now they go by the name Blaq Tuxedo.
How did you end up changing your name We changed it because Dungeons & Dragons
is hard to beat out. Owned the name. Yeah.
Even though we feel like we the original D &D
It's not happening, fella.
People were coming in and out of the house
and just bringing us beats and stuff like that.
Our friend, Buzz, he produced that particular beat,
and we liked it.
Our mom wrote this song back in the day kind of talking about LA.
We just remembered the song at that moment,
and then just flipped it into the chorus.
LA Boom
Can you believe we found love In the city of LA
LA
It's the City of Angels
It can take you anywhere
They were like, "We got the perfect joint for you."
A lot of times, people, they say that, and it's just, like, skip, skip, skip,
but this one just resonated. The hook was perfect.
It was a song about my city,
so the verse, for me, came in five minutes.
I was in New York and I did my verse,
and the verse was cold.
Yeah, let me solo this.
Uh, in the city of the gangbang
Yeah, we still dyin' over red and blue
Wait, man. How did you get my fucking files and shit, bruh
From the label.
All right, somebody's getting fired, man.
Nobody's supposed to have my files, man. That's the secret sauce
of this show. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
I did my verse and I had talked to Kendrick that day.
He was at another studio around the corner.
I went over there and played it for him.
He loved it. He was like, "Bro, I automatically felt it"
and did his verse, which was a super legendary verse.
I just told him I'm calling the album "Free TC,"
showing love to my brother and any other person falsely accused of some shit
and locked down and have their life taken away.
And I'm sure he has some people in his family or friends coming up in LA
that are going through the same thing.
So he felt me.
Can I ask you about the beginning of the song
Who do we hear at the beginning of the track
That's this dude named Nate Howard.
Nate Howard used to work at MTV as a VJ
as well as being one of the most prolific cats out here,
getting on stands and basically preaching on all the fuckedup shit
that's happening.
"It's just me out here, at least that's what it feels like.
They said I wouldn't make it,
that this was a city of broken dreams, but somehow…"
A lot of stuff was going on in the news of police brutality and different things.
It's just a season of backtoback shootings and different things happening.
We heard about Mike Brown.
We heard about Trayvon Martin.
In Skid Row, I think a homeless man had gotten shot by a police officer.
What it really does to an African American male
when you see this in the news
and realize you can't do anything about it.
It's a fear.
It's like, wow, you can just kill me straight up in the street
and get away with it.
That's where my energy was for the words that I wrote in the intro.
"Lost angels broke cages. They seen animals, we made stages."
He's just a great voice for the community,
and once I saw what he was doing,
I'm like, "Yo, come in and do that on my album. Go off."
And he wrote that.
Yeah. The talk box.
One of the greatest instruments ever created.
Oh, yeah
Oh
LA
That's Battle Cat. He's always been
one of my favorite producers ever.
I always knew I wanted him on one of my albums.
South Central
This is a talk box, and I use this to voice
melodies and harmonies.
It's a unique instrument…
that is the thread and needle to joy and love and life
in itself.
You put the tube in your mouth…
and then you just pronounciate, you know, words or melodies with it.
What I do is silence my own tone
and speak like I'm whispering.
Speak like I'm whispering.
Speak like I'm whispering
Then you'll have a sound that sounds like this
LA
I'm just into sounds,
and however I can get them, I'm gonna get them.
I may go through five bass players to get to the actual bass line that I want.
I'm that psycho about a song.
Lemme go to the bass line. Do you remember who plays this part
I think that's me.
Yeah, for sure.
Coming up, my pops is in this group called Lakeside.
Funk is what they got famous for 'cause it was hot at the time.
It's still hot now when I was listen to it,
but at the time, I thought the shit was whack.
Now, I know it's all about the drummers,
the bass player, the guitar player, the keyboard player,
if you want to add horns, if you want to add strings…
It's a band out here, you know what I mean
We just played everybody together.
So this original drum beat sounds like this…
LA
Can you believe we found love In the city of LA
But then the beat that you actually ended up putting in there…
Really different vibe.
Yeah.
What wasWhat was behind that
Why change the drums so dramatically
Because I just felt like I didn't like the original kick, the original snare.
It felt like I heard it before, and I don't wanna sound like anybody ever.
I end up changing the drums with DMow.
I bring him in on every project to just help me executive produce the whole thing.
My homie, Chords, added some stuff to the beat.
We just changed it to try to come up with, like, you know, a newer sound.
Textures, bro. Music to me is all about textures.
You got the high hat in there. You got the fucking I forgot what you call it.
It's just like this steel or metal object.
And up here is like a flat pan of metal,
and then you go like this
and it has the noise and you bend it to give it that
So I always That one.
Flexatone
Flexatone. Cool. Perfect.
Oh, that's me on guitar, too.
Yeah.
I can make songs by myself too,
hundred percent fully produce every instrument,
vocals, and that's fun to do too.
But…I mean, it could get lonely, you know what I mean
So I love…I love collabing.
That's my shit.
My favorite element of the "LA" song is James Fauntleroy on the bridge.
And I ain't talking love, girl
But I know how you feel
That was amazing.
I must have played that thing about 30 times.
Yeah.
I also had Brandy come in.
LA
Found love
I've known Brandy since I was a kid.
Everything she's ever done, I have it on my phone right now.
You can't say that about a lot of artists.
Can you believe we found love In the city of LA
Those chords alone right there that you just played are just so amazing to me.
It really does end up feeling like a band, 'cause now you got Brandy, James,
yourself and D&D.
Yeah.
Lead singer and the background singers, you know what I'm saying
But they're all lead singers.
Is there strings on this track too Yeah.
Yeah, so the strings on this track, I probably fucked with
Peter Lee Johnson first, who is my main guy.
But you see, that's one guy.
So I wanted it to sound way bigger.
So I spent like 75k, when I didn't have it,
on a whole string section to come in
guided by the fucking greatest of all time, Benjamin Wright.
Benjamin Wright is a Grammywinning arranger.
In the 70s, he was the musical director for The Temptations and Aretha Franklin,
and he's done string arrangements for Michael Jackson, Outkast
and Justin Timberlake.
Filled up the whole vocal booth with people and just…
you know what I mean
Wrote everything out, and they played it beautifully.
With his shit, he went so crazy that I definitely had to dissect
and be like, "No, no I'm keeping this, keeping this."
He plays throughout the whole song, but I feel like…
it just didn't belong throughout the whole song.
Songs to me are all about space,
like it's just different explosions… at different times.
Your brother's voice's at the end.
Yeah. How did you get that audio
Somehow they got a hold of a phone.
I recorded it and fucking created, you know, music around it.
Yeah, that's how that shit went.
Did you always know that you were gonna put his voice in the song
Yeah. I always knew I just wanted him on this album,
and we, you know, had to figure it out, so we did.
Real 92.3, LA's hip hop and R&B. Big Boy in the morning.
Ty Dolla $ign is up in here all the way live.
Now, with the album release, man, "Free TC,"
when did you last have a chance to talk with your bro
He's on the phone right now He on the phone right now
TC, what did that feel like when your brother told you, man,
"This is what I'm going to title the album, man"
I felt honored, and it's just, like, he's been doing music since we was born.
My whole life, he's never stopped doing music.
TC, you've been gone what, how many years Like eight
Eleven.
Eleven
Wow For it.
Oh man. We gotta Oh boy.
They don't ever wanna let a man out here, man.
Man, well, hey, brother, your brother's here on a mission, man,
and his energy is focused straight toward getting you back
to the living room, my brother.
At the end of this whole shit,
having my brother involved even though his situation
was a blessing, man.
The warden, the guards,
everybody became fans of him in jail.
Like, they had to move him to another jail
because he got so poppin' in the jail he was in at this time.
No kidding. You know
It's still family at the end of the day,
and family's all about ups and downs and who's really here with you.
That's LA.
How do you know when the song's done
How do you not just keep adding layers and features and instruments,
and how did you know to finish it
Shit, when I got the mix back, I knew it was done. You know what I mean
I could take it to the car and it slaps just like
whatever song was on the radio at the time.
The car test is very important to me.
I'll go from the radio station…
Out here it's 92.3.
It's Power 106.
It's 94.7 The Wave.
It's 89.9 KCRW.
It's KROCK 106.7.
I'll go to all of those and hear different genres of shit,
and then turn on my shit.
The kick sound right, the snare sound right, the high hats,
the tamborines, the keys, the fuckin' talk box.
Like, we went crazy.
And maybe the regular ear might not even know all of that,
but shout out to the people that do and this is for you.
The one thing about music
is it doesn't matter what the fuck you think you are.
No matter what race, what sexuality, any of that shit,
the music is going to bring everybody together
and make you want to fucking give a hug,
shed a tear, nigga, share the situation together, you know
So that's what we did with this project.
I mean, it's the first song on the first album I ever put out
that came out on a major label.
Everyone involved are my favorites.
So, like, it's just…
That was like, fuckin'…
a orgasm, bro.
Like a musical orgasm.
Like, damn, I really just made that happen.
LA
I remember when I first got signed to Atlantic
and I ran all the way to the Observatory in joy, like,
just, like, happy as fuck, you know,
and that's what that feels like when I hear that song.
LA, LA
You know we made it, and when we got to the top of the hill,
we were like, "Yeah, bruh, this is what we have to do every time."
It's success.
LA, LA We found love
And now, here's "LA" by Ty Dolla $ign in its entirety.
LA
Can you believe we found love In the city of LA
LA
It's the City of Angels It can take you anywhere
LA
Can you believe we fell in love In the city of LA
LA
It's the City of Angels It can take you anywhere
LA
Can you believe we fell in love In the city of LA
LA
It's the City of Angels It can take you anywhere
This is where it started off, nigga.
But now look at where we're at now. Like, what the fuck
I mean, you The first song is "LA."
So then after that, it went from LA to all over the world.