Conversation with Ty
Sitting down with UK rapper Ty, somewhere in South London, I start telling him about my sister Ira who recently lost her laptop at JFK Airport and didn’t have a back-up! Gone were all her videos, pictures, music, documents… everything gone. Ty’s response is “You know what? Sometimes it’s good when you got to start all over”!
Starting over seems to be the theme of the day. My last interview with Ty was a year ago so everything about that moment feels fresh and new. Unfortunately with no prepared notes, questions or topics to talk about, I am as blank as Ira’s back up. The only thing I can think of asking Ty is ” What is new”?
Ty responds by simply pressing play on his Itunes, taking me on a journey through what’s been, what’s new and what’s to come. I’m instantly charmed by the production of the record. For an artist like Ty, making music is more than just spitting lyrics or being an MC. As he explains himself, the actual process of producing music and creating the right sound is the gratification. It’s a kind of therapy or cathartic expression.
In recent months, for Ty, therapy has been playing with different beats, chopping up different sounds and a lot of puzzling and messing around with music. The process was so organic that only after a few studio sessions Ty realized that he was a couple of songs into the record. “I really do believe in just letting things happen and crashing through the waves but once I established that it was the new record, I also had to set a deadline for it “. When talking about who’s going to feature on his record, Ty stresses that he’s not concerned with names but more with shared vision and philosophy. “It’s not about features, it’s about the people who come together and the spirit, the message and the meaning they bring to it”. This independent streak can be felt when Ty subsequently explains that he is not “consumed with how people perceive the music, because it’s such a personal process and I truly believe that I am approaching it in a genuine way”.
Authenticity and dedication are what Ty is about. He works on his music non stop, often finding himself in work mode even when he gets home after long days and studio sessions. Music is not just music, it’s him sharing his world: “I am sharing the common denominator and giving people a multi- colored window into my life, the nature of the beast”. On this record Ty is also outspoken when it comes to discussing the place of black artists within the UK music industry: these being the struggles of acceptance and the opportunities more often denied than given.
This 4th record, as of yet untitled, will be about life: “It’s for your bedroom, your tidying, for you to remember a lost one, your studying, your cooking, anything that will let you know I understand how you feel”. The album will be “humorous, serious, to dance to, slow, fast, thoughtful, silly, provocative, nonsense but in the end it will have flair”. “It will have flair at all times”!
