WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.980 Imagine spending millions of dollars enlisting 00:00:03.980 --> 00:00:06.240 the absolute biggest hitmakers on the planet. 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:08.820 And timing your release to the literal night 00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:11.160 before the most polarizing presidential election 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:13.140 in modern American history. Right. And then, 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:14.699 you know, trying to convince the world you just 00:00:14.699 --> 00:00:17.820 dropped a casual underground mixtape. It sounds 00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:19.839 like a massive contradiction, honestly. Totally. 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:22.780 Welcome to today's deep dive, everyone. I'm your 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:25.339 host and I am so excited to jump into this with 00:00:25.339 --> 00:00:28.039 our resident music industry expert. Hey there. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:30.440 Thrilled to be here because, you know, having 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:33.259 the towering infrastructure of a major record 00:00:33.259 --> 00:00:35.780 label clashing directly with the gritty energy 00:00:35.780 --> 00:00:39.460 of street level hip hop culture. That contradiction 00:00:39.460 --> 00:00:42.060 was an accident. No, it really wasn't. OK, let's 00:00:42.060 --> 00:00:44.619 unpack this because today we are jumping straight 00:00:44.619 --> 00:00:48.170 into the blurred lines between. art, national 00:00:48.170 --> 00:00:50.829 politics, and pure industry strategy. And it 00:00:50.829 --> 00:00:52.609 is a fascinating intersection to look at. It 00:00:52.609 --> 00:00:55.750 really is. We are looking at a 2016 project by 00:00:55.750 --> 00:00:58.530 the American R &B and hip -hop artist Ty Dolla 00:00:58.530 --> 00:01:01.899 Sign. The project is called Campaign. And our 00:01:01.899 --> 00:01:04.599 mission for you on this deep dive is to explore 00:01:04.599 --> 00:01:08.000 how this specific release functions as both a 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:11.280 calculated commercial music rollout and, well, 00:01:11.420 --> 00:01:14.060 a real -time reflection of a highly charged political 00:01:14.060 --> 00:01:16.319 era. Yeah, and this is where the mechanics of 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:20.019 pop culture become incredibly revealing. We aren't 00:01:20.019 --> 00:01:22.459 just looking at a collection of songs here, we're 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:24.799 dissecting a vessel. A vessel for the cultural 00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:27.500 mood, right. We're exploring how artists manage 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:30.739 to package and sell the complex mood of a nation, 00:01:31.579 --> 00:01:33.159 like while everyone else is still frantically 00:01:33.159 --> 00:01:34.739 trying to figure out what that mood even is. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.299 And just to be completely clear for everyone 00:01:37.299 --> 00:01:40.849 listening, Our goal today isn't to litigate the 00:01:40.849 --> 00:01:43.890 politics of 2016 or, you know, pick sides. Absolutely 00:01:43.890 --> 00:01:46.109 not. Right. We are entirely impartial here. We 00:01:46.109 --> 00:01:48.250 are not endorsing any political viewpoints or 00:01:48.250 --> 00:01:50.730 debating the merits of the Trump or Clinton campaigns. 00:01:50.909 --> 00:01:52.849 Nope. Just looking at the facts of the release. 00:01:53.010 --> 00:01:54.930 Exactly. We're simply looking under the hood 00:01:54.930 --> 00:01:57.769 to see how an artist took the massive polarizing 00:01:57.769 --> 00:02:01.390 energy of those campaigns and engineered it into 00:02:01.390 --> 00:02:03.510 a commercial music project. We are analyzing 00:02:03.510 --> 00:02:06.129 the mirror, not judging the reflection. That 00:02:06.129 --> 00:02:08.280 is a great way to put it. Well, thank you. And 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:11.219 that distinction is vital because to understand 00:02:11.219 --> 00:02:14.060 the architecture of this cultural reaction, we 00:02:14.060 --> 00:02:15.620 really have to start with the thematic core. 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:18.319 Right. Before we even touch on how the music 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:20.639 was built. Yeah. Before we talk about who was 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:23.400 featured on it or the beats, we need to understand 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:25.740 the message and the specific timeline of its 00:02:25.740 --> 00:02:27.740 delivery. And the clock was ticking incredibly 00:02:27.740 --> 00:02:29.500 loudly on this one, wasn't it? Oh, it was a sprint. 00:02:29.699 --> 00:02:31.960 Yeah. Campaign was released on September 23, 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:37.060 2016. It runs exactly 56 minutes and 47 seconds. 00:02:37.180 --> 00:02:40.699 And it is explicitly unapologetically framed 00:02:40.699 --> 00:02:44.199 around the 2016 presidential election. It doesn't 00:02:44.199 --> 00:02:46.479 shy away from it at all. Not at all. The entire 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:49.000 tape serves as this recurring theme, expressing 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.139 the views of Ty Dolla Sign, his friends, and 00:02:52.139 --> 00:02:54.400 his family on those specific campaigns. Right. 00:02:54.439 --> 00:02:57.020 It's not just some vague overarching statement 00:02:57.020 --> 00:02:59.439 about society. Exactly. It's tethered to the 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:02.060 names and the anxieties dominating the news cycle 00:03:02.060 --> 00:03:04.520 at that exact second. What's fascinating here 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:07.400 is how the project manages the scale of that 00:03:07.400 --> 00:03:10.590 anxiety. because national elections are inherently 00:03:10.590 --> 00:03:13.009 abstract. Oh, for sure. They happen on debate 00:03:13.009 --> 00:03:15.310 stages and in cable news segments. Right, but 00:03:15.310 --> 00:03:18.169 Tidal Assign grounds that high -level political 00:03:18.169 --> 00:03:22.129 discourse into deeply personal real -world stakes. 00:03:22.969 --> 00:03:25.449 You see this most clearly on the track, No Justice. 00:03:25.710 --> 00:03:27.509 Which actually dropped early in the summer, right? 00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:31.650 Like July 21st, 2016? Yes, exactly. And that 00:03:31.650 --> 00:03:34.150 track features a guest appearance by Ty's younger 00:03:34.150 --> 00:03:36.870 brother, Big TC. And the crucial detail there, 00:03:37.009 --> 00:03:39.169 the thing that shifts the entire gravity of the 00:03:39.169 --> 00:03:42.949 project, is that Big TC is incarcerated. Yeah, 00:03:43.050 --> 00:03:45.370 and the inclusion of actively incarcerated family 00:03:45.370 --> 00:03:48.069 member transforms the theme entirely. How so? 00:03:48.409 --> 00:03:50.949 Well, you're no longer just listening to a wealthy 00:03:50.949 --> 00:03:54.030 musician comment on the political landscape from 00:03:54.030 --> 00:03:56.289 a comfortable studio in Los Angeles. Right, you're 00:03:56.289 --> 00:03:58.189 hearing directly from someone on the inside. 00:03:58.569 --> 00:04:00.900 Exactly. You are hearing the justice system, 00:04:01.259 --> 00:04:02.919 which was one of the central debating points 00:04:02.919 --> 00:04:05.659 of the 2016 election, speak for itself through 00:04:05.659 --> 00:04:08.539 a family bond. Wow, yeah. It takes the political 00:04:08.539 --> 00:04:10.439 theme from something you watch on television 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:12.560 and makes it something you live through in your 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:15.620 own family tree. It makes the abstraction tangible. 00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:19.779 When you have a polished major label vocal track 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:22.939 contrasted with the reality of the prison system, 00:04:23.660 --> 00:04:26.540 it completely bypasses the traditional slow -moving 00:04:26.540 --> 00:04:28.879 album cycle. It really does. It makes me think 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:33.079 of this project as an audio polaroid. An audio 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:35.819 polaroid. I really love that framing. The immediacy 00:04:35.819 --> 00:04:38.500 of a polaroid versus, say, a classical portrait. 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:40.420 Exactly. Well, think about a traditional studio 00:04:40.420 --> 00:04:43.139 album. An album is like a grand oil painting. 00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:45.480 Right. It takes months or years. Exactly. It 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:47.920 takes years to conceptualize, years to execute, 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:51.480 and crucially, an oil painting takes months to 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:54.459 dry. And in the music industry, that drying time 00:04:54.459 --> 00:04:57.939 is brutal. It's the endless wait for sample clearances, 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:01.379 coordinating massive arena tour schedules, months 00:05:01.379 --> 00:05:04.079 of label focus grouping, and those six -month 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:06.860 press tours. By the time that oil painting finally 00:05:06.860 --> 00:05:09.720 hangs in the gallery, the initial spark of inspiration 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:11.740 might be three years old. Exactly. The culture 00:05:11.740 --> 00:05:14.120 has completely moved on. The relevance is diluted 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:16.459 by the bureaucracy of the rollout. But a Polaroid. 00:05:16.459 --> 00:05:18.800 You just point and shoot. It's a raw, instant 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:21.319 snapshot of a cultural moment. You shake it, 00:05:21.579 --> 00:05:23.300 and the picture develops right in front of your 00:05:23.300 --> 00:05:26.860 eyes. Yeah. Capturing the exact lighting and 00:05:26.860 --> 00:05:30.519 mood of that very second. By centering the tape 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:34.120 around the 2016 election and explicitly featuring 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:36.920 the real -time voices of his friends, his family, 00:05:37.180 --> 00:05:40.560 and his incarcerated brother, he used this format 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:43.540 to completely bypass that corporate drying time. 00:05:43.790 --> 00:05:46.250 he took a flash photograph of the national anxiety. 00:05:46.949 --> 00:05:48.949 Exactly. That metaphor perfectly captures the 00:05:48.949 --> 00:05:51.769 artistic intention. But, you know, capturing 00:05:51.769 --> 00:05:53.930 that audio polaroid is useless if nobody actually 00:05:53.930 --> 00:05:56.579 sees it. True. Ty Dolla $ign had a major label 00:05:56.579 --> 00:05:59.899 budget. But how do you force the public to pay 00:05:59.899 --> 00:06:02.519 attention to a snapshot in the middle of the 00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:04.660 loudest, most chaotic election in modern history? 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:07.040 It's a huge challenge. It is. And this brings 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:09.379 us to a massive contradiction in the music industry 00:06:09.379 --> 00:06:12.300 and the confusing nature of how this raw, immediate 00:06:12.300 --> 00:06:14.730 Polaroid was packaged and sold. You're talking 00:06:14.730 --> 00:06:16.930 about the label commercial mixtape, aren't you? 00:06:17.069 --> 00:06:19.009 I am. Because when you look at the vessel carrying 00:06:19.009 --> 00:06:22.050 this message, it is explicitly defined as a commercial 00:06:22.050 --> 00:06:24.870 mixtape released by Atlantic Records. And Atlantic 00:06:24.870 --> 00:06:28.170 is a massive global powerhouse. And they armed 00:06:28.170 --> 00:06:31.810 this project with a premium blockbuster infrastructure. 00:06:32.089 --> 00:06:34.439 Like, if you look at the track listing. The guest 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:37.459 stars read like a who's who of 2016 hip hop and 00:06:37.459 --> 00:06:39.819 R &B royalty. It really is stacked. You have 00:06:39.819 --> 00:06:42.459 Future on the title track, Campaign. You have 00:06:42.459 --> 00:06:45.259 Travis Scott on Three Ways. You've got Migos 00:06:45.259 --> 00:06:48.240 on the track, Where. Plus appearances by Trey 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:51.399 Songz, Wiz Khalifa, and Meek Mill. Not to mention 00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:53.139 the people behind the boards. The production 00:06:53.139 --> 00:06:55.660 credits are just staggering. Absolutely top tier. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:59.459 We are talking about Hitboy, Mike Dean, DJ Mustard, 00:06:59.639 --> 00:07:02.480 Zay Toven, Frank Dukes, and D -Mile. Yeah, these 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:04.519 aren't underground beatmakers recording in a 00:07:04.519 --> 00:07:06.819 basement. No, these are some of the most sought 00:07:06.819 --> 00:07:09.600 after, expensive hitmakers in the entire industry. 00:07:10.040 --> 00:07:12.959 These are guys who build stadium -shaking soundscapes 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:15.720 for artists like Beyonce and Kanye West. Which 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:18.040 creates an undeniable friction with the title 00:07:18.040 --> 00:07:19.860 of the project. Wait, hold on. I got to push 00:07:19.860 --> 00:07:21.600 back on this terminology entirely. Please, let's 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:24.069 hear it. You can't call this a mixtape. I mean, 00:07:24.089 --> 00:07:27.009 historically, a mixtape is a burned CD handed 00:07:27.009 --> 00:07:29.029 out of the trunk of a car in a parking lot or 00:07:29.029 --> 00:07:32.470 a free download on a blog meant to bypass sample 00:07:32.470 --> 00:07:34.329 clearances and label restrictions. Right. The 00:07:34.329 --> 00:07:37.050 Dat Biff era. Exactly. It's rough. It's street 00:07:37.050 --> 00:07:40.370 level. It's grassroots. If you have a multimillion 00:07:40.370 --> 00:07:44.269 dollar Atlantic Records marketing budget, a sprawling 00:07:44.269 --> 00:07:47.829 16 track track list, Guess Versus from Future 00:07:47.829 --> 00:07:50.470 and Travis Scott and production from Mike Dean 00:07:50.470 --> 00:07:54.180 and DJ Mustard. The math just doesn't add up. 00:07:54.500 --> 00:07:56.560 It really doesn't. Isn't commercial mixtape just 00:07:56.560 --> 00:07:58.740 a corporate rebrand? Like, isn't this just a 00:07:58.740 --> 00:08:01.680 full -fledged, big -budget studio album masquerading 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:04.779 under a gritty mixtape label to sound more authentic? 00:08:04.920 --> 00:08:07.339 That pushback hits on the central paradox of 00:08:07.339 --> 00:08:09.899 the modern streaming era. Honestly, you are absolutely 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:11.620 right to question the terminology. I just feel 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:13.300 like it's a marketing trick. And the critical 00:08:13.300 --> 00:08:15.860 response to this project grappled with that exact 00:08:15.860 --> 00:08:18.720 identity crisis. Jordan Sargent, writing for 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:21.180 Spin magazine, articulated this beautifully. 00:08:21.240 --> 00:08:23.709 What did he say? Sargent noted the campaign is, 00:08:23.709 --> 00:08:27.269 and I quote, a mixtape in name that feels not 00:08:27.269 --> 00:08:29.730 quite like a mixtape, but not exactly like an 00:08:29.730 --> 00:08:32.149 album either. Not quite a mixtape, not exactly 00:08:32.149 --> 00:08:33.909 an album. That feels like a label trying to have 00:08:33.909 --> 00:08:36.649 its cake and eat it too. It is entirely about 00:08:36.649 --> 00:08:39.090 expectation management and the economics of streaming. 00:08:40.409 --> 00:08:42.429 Sargent goes on to say that the project is at 00:08:42.429 --> 00:08:45.110 its best when it carries on the tradition of 00:08:45.110 --> 00:08:48.490 a richness of sound. as a virtue in and of itself. 00:08:48.830 --> 00:08:51.309 Okay, so why use the mixtape label when it has 00:08:51.309 --> 00:08:54.070 all the hallmarks and budget of a massive studio 00:08:54.070 --> 00:08:56.490 album? Because of how the industry judges albums. 00:08:56.710 --> 00:08:59.509 Ah, the expectations. Exactly. If Ty Dolla Sign 00:08:59.509 --> 00:09:02.289 calls this his official sophomore studio album, 00:09:02.750 --> 00:09:05.730 Atlantic record shareholders expect massive radio 00:09:05.730 --> 00:09:08.289 -dominating pop crossovers. Right. Music critics 00:09:08.289 --> 00:09:11.070 expect a perfectly cohesive overarching narrative 00:09:11.070 --> 00:09:14.570 that reinvents his sound. The pressure is astronomical. 00:09:14.690 --> 00:09:16.620 Oh, I see. So the commercial mixtape label is 00:09:16.620 --> 00:09:18.980 basically a shield. Pretty much. It gives him 00:09:18.980 --> 00:09:21.559 permission to be looser, like he still gets the 00:09:21.559 --> 00:09:24.080 major label budget to hire hip boy and Mike Dean 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:26.960 to achieve that richness of sound, but calling 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:30.179 it a mixtape lowers the thematic stakes. Exactly. 00:09:30.259 --> 00:09:32.860 He doesn't have to deliver the defining magnum 00:09:32.860 --> 00:09:35.720 opus of his career. He just has to deliver a 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:38.799 vibe. Precisely. It buys him the flexibility 00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:42.440 to react to the new cycle in real time, to throw 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:45.279 in a bunch of massive club features with Migos 00:09:45.279 --> 00:09:48.340 and Travis Scott, and to keep the energy reactionary. 00:09:48.519 --> 00:09:50.580 But crucially, because it's a commercial mixtape, 00:09:50.980 --> 00:09:53.059 it's not a free download. Right, you're streaming 00:09:53.059 --> 00:09:55.779 it. It's available on Spotify, Apple Music, and 00:09:55.779 --> 00:09:59.360 sold in stores. The label still monetizes every 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:02.500 single stream. But they bypassed the traditional 00:10:02.500 --> 00:10:05.220 exhausting two -year marketing cycle of a formal 00:10:05.220 --> 00:10:07.379 album. Which ties perfectly back to the audio 00:10:07.379 --> 00:10:09.980 Polaroid analogy. The format itself was a tool 00:10:09.980 --> 00:10:12.940 to control how the audience and the critics digested 00:10:12.940 --> 00:10:15.320 the message. They engineered a loophole essentially. 00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:17.980 Yeah, to get major label distribution at grassroots 00:10:17.980 --> 00:10:21.159 speed. And that speed dictated everything about 00:10:21.159 --> 00:10:24.700 how the music was finally unveiled. We've discussed 00:10:24.700 --> 00:10:27.519 the message and the medium, but the execution 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:30.220 of the release is perhaps the most revealing 00:10:30.220 --> 00:10:32.460 part of this deep dive. So how did they actually 00:10:32.460 --> 00:10:34.899 deploy it? How did Ty Dolla Sign and Atlantic 00:10:34.899 --> 00:10:37.620 Records actually release this to the wild? Well, 00:10:37.620 --> 00:10:39.720 they ran it like an actual political campaign. 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:43.720 Oh, wow. The rollout was incredibly calculated, 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:46.419 designed to ride the turbulent wave of the political 00:10:46.419 --> 00:10:49.240 calendar. So they matched the news cycle. Yeah. 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:52.259 The lead single, which is the title track campaign 00:10:52.259 --> 00:10:55.580 featuring Future, actually dropped back on July 00:10:55.580 --> 00:10:58.340 11, 2016. Okay, so the audio was out there all 00:10:58.340 --> 00:11:00.220 summer. Right, the audio of the song was out 00:11:00.220 --> 00:11:02.379 in the world circulating in clubs and on streaming 00:11:02.379 --> 00:11:05.159 platforms, but the music video, they completely 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:08.399 held it back. Wait, really? For how long? They 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:10.980 didn't premiere the visual for the title track 00:11:10.980 --> 00:11:14.580 until November 7, 2016. Which was the exact night 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:17.059 before election day. Literally the eve of the 00:11:17.059 --> 00:11:19.240 election. Yeah, that isn't an accident. They 00:11:19.240 --> 00:11:21.120 purposefully withheld their biggest piece of 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:23.600 visual marketing for four months, just so it 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:26.100 could detonate at the absolute peak of national 00:11:26.100 --> 00:11:29.139 anxiety. It's highly theatrical. And they were 00:11:29.139 --> 00:11:31.200 building momentum the entire time. They didn't 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:33.559 just go quiet between July and November. What 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:35.639 else did they draw? They pushed another single, 00:11:35.980 --> 00:11:38.659 Zaddy. with its own dedicated rollout and music 00:11:38.659 --> 00:11:40.679 video at the end of August. Right. Then they 00:11:40.679 --> 00:11:42.759 dropped promotional singles back to back in early 00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:46.360 September. Three Ways with Travis Scott on September 00:11:46.360 --> 00:11:49.340 1st and Stealing on September 9th. So building 00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:52.059 it up right before the tape drops. All of this 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:54.600 served as the lead up to the full project release 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:57.759 on September 23rd. They effectively built a three 00:11:57.759 --> 00:12:00.779 month promotional runaway. It perfectly mirrored 00:12:00.779 --> 00:12:03.620 the final frantic stretch of the actual presidential 00:12:03.620 --> 00:12:06.259 campaigns, culminating in that delayed music 00:12:06.259 --> 00:12:09.159 video drop right before the voting booths opened. 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:11.080 So what does this all mean for you listening? 00:12:11.659 --> 00:12:13.840 When you look at a strategy that aggressive tying 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:17.279 your art so inextricably to a specific Tuesday 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:20.340 in November 2016, I have to wonder about the 00:12:20.340 --> 00:12:22.960 long -term cost. Yeah, does it age well? Right. 00:12:23.399 --> 00:12:26.240 Did holding that video until election eve maximize 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:28.720 its cultural impact or did tying the project 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:32.159 so closely to a single date inadvertently put 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:34.399 an expiration date on the music itself? That 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:36.639 is the million dollar question, isn't it? If 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:38.879 we connect this to the bigger picture, the answer 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:41.720 lies in how the public and the critics actually 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:43.899 received it. Let's look at the commercial numbers 00:12:43.899 --> 00:12:46.379 first, because the math of a commercial mixtape 00:12:46.379 --> 00:12:48.960 is kind of tricky. Definitely. The tape debuted 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:51.840 at number 28 on the U .S. Billboard 200 chart, 00:12:52.019 --> 00:12:55.139 and it moved 14 ,000 album -equivalent units 00:12:55.139 --> 00:12:58.299 in its first week. It also hit number 7 on the 00:12:58.299 --> 00:13:00.879 top R &B hip -hop albums chart. Let's pause on 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:03.820 that 14 ,000 number, because 2016 was a transitional 00:13:03.820 --> 00:13:06.080 time for the Billboard charts. Because of streaming. 00:13:06.360 --> 00:13:08.940 Yes. We're talking about album -equivalent units, 00:13:09.019 --> 00:13:11.639 not just physical CDs sold. This means Billboard 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:13.690 was... calculating track streams and digital 00:13:13.690 --> 00:13:15.950 downloads and converting them into an album sale 00:13:15.950 --> 00:13:19.289 equivalent. Ah, gotcha. So 14 ,000 units for 00:13:19.289 --> 00:13:21.070 a project that was dropped relatively quickly 00:13:21.070 --> 00:13:25.710 under a mixtape moniker. It is a solid, respectable 00:13:25.710 --> 00:13:28.529 showing. It's respectable, sure, but if I'm playing 00:13:28.529 --> 00:13:31.250 devil's advocate again. Go for it. A track list 00:13:31.250 --> 00:13:34.710 featuring future Travis Scott and Migos, produced 00:13:34.710 --> 00:13:37.649 by DJ Mustard and Mike Dean, debuting at number 00:13:37.649 --> 00:13:40.460 28. That's not the earth -shattering number one 00:13:40.460 --> 00:13:42.720 you might expect from that caliber of star power. 00:13:43.240 --> 00:13:45.480 It's a fair point. It suggests that maybe the 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:48.120 public saw it as a momentary novelty rather than 00:13:48.120 --> 00:13:51.379 a definitive musical milestone. And that exact 00:13:51.379 --> 00:13:53.659 tension is mirrored in the critical reception. 00:13:54.460 --> 00:13:56.899 The professional music press was incredibly divided 00:13:56.899 --> 00:13:59.179 on whether this strategy worked. What did the 00:13:59.179 --> 00:14:02.000 reviews look like? Well, on Metacritic, which 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.179 aggregates reviews from major publications, Campaign 00:14:05.179 --> 00:14:08.480 earned a 71 out of 100. Okay. generally positive. 00:14:08.649 --> 00:14:11.649 It is, but it hides a really stark philosophical 00:14:11.649 --> 00:14:14.309 divide among individual critics over the value 00:14:14.309 --> 00:14:17.409 of political immediacy versus musical innovation. 00:14:17.590 --> 00:14:20.269 You can see this exact tension in how different 00:14:20.269 --> 00:14:22.610 magazines reacted. Like on one hand, you have 00:14:22.610 --> 00:14:25.149 Scott Glacier from XXL magazine. He loved it. 00:14:25.210 --> 00:14:27.389 He gave it a glowing four out of five, calling 00:14:27.389 --> 00:14:29.970 it a close runner up to the musical brilliance 00:14:29.970 --> 00:14:33.230 of Ty's previous full fledged studio album, Free 00:14:33.230 --> 00:14:36.769 TC. Yeah, for XXL capturing that volatile 2016 00:14:36.769 --> 00:14:39.480 energy was a massive success. The audio Polaroid 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:41.960 worked. But then you look at a reviewer like 00:14:41.960 --> 00:14:45.200 Mick Jacobs from Pretty Much Amazing. He gave 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:49.279 the project a C minus. Ouch. Why so low? His 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:51.659 critique was entirely focused on the sonic architecture. 00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:55.220 He noted that yes, as a mixtape, he understood 00:14:55.220 --> 00:14:57.759 why it sounded somewhat derivative of the prevailing 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:01.279 trap and R &B trends of 2016. But he wanted more. 00:15:01.700 --> 00:15:04.399 Exactly. He still wished Ty Dolla Sign had pushed 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:06.460 further in terms of musical experimentation. 00:15:06.740 --> 00:15:08.399 Right. He wanted the oil painting. He wanted 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:10.960 the artist to take years to invent a totally 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:13.480 new color palette. But you can't invent a new 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:15.100 color palette when you're rushing to capture 00:15:15.100 --> 00:15:17.279 a snapshot of an election that's happening right 00:15:17.279 --> 00:15:20.399 now. You really can't. Exactly. The urgency of 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:23.039 the project meant there wasn't time. or perhaps 00:15:23.039 --> 00:15:25.700 the inclination to reinvent the wheel sonically. 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:28.460 Right. They just needed the strongest, most commercial 00:15:28.460 --> 00:15:31.580 vehicle to deliver the message immediately. And 00:15:31.580 --> 00:15:34.159 this divide is perfectly bridged by Winston Cook 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:36.100 Wilson over at Pitchfork. What did Pitchfork 00:15:36.100 --> 00:15:39.360 say? He gave it a 6 .9 out of 10, essentially 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:41.860 splitting the difference. He noted that campaign 00:15:41.860 --> 00:15:45.299 outpaced Ty's recent truly underground mixtape 00:15:45.299 --> 00:15:48.080 efforts. But ultimately, it mostly just preserved 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:51.379 his musical bottom line. That phrase, musical 00:15:51.379 --> 00:15:53.419 bottom line, is the key to this whole deep dive, 00:15:53.419 --> 00:15:56.340 I think. How so? Well, when you tether your project 00:15:56.340 --> 00:15:59.120 to a rapidly moving political target, you are 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:01.259 relying entirely on the energy of the moment 00:16:01.259 --> 00:16:04.240 to carry the art. Yes. The trade -off for capturing 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:06.820 the immediate, high -impact flash photography 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:09.460 of a cultural moment is that you might have to 00:16:09.460 --> 00:16:12.700 rely on standard, highly produced sounds to get 00:16:12.700 --> 00:16:15.919 it out the door. You sacrifice timeless musical 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:19.100 experimentation for undeniable real -time relevance. 00:16:19.340 --> 00:16:22.360 It is the ultimate tightrope walk. And the Metacritic 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:24.639 divide, weighing a respectable if not dominant 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:26.679 billboard debut against debates over whether 00:16:26.679 --> 00:16:29.399 it's brilliant commentary or sonically derivative, 00:16:29.779 --> 00:16:32.240 shows us just how difficult it is to evaluate 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:34.419 a project that sits directly on the fault line 00:16:34.419 --> 00:16:36.639 of art and immediate political reactions. It's 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:38.600 a tricky balance for sure. Which brings us full 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:41.100 circle. As we wrap up this deep dive, let's quickly 00:16:41.100 --> 00:16:43.120 recap the journey we've been on today. Sounds 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:45.539 good. We took a closer look at Ty Dolla Signs 00:16:45.539 --> 00:16:48.379 2016 campaign and unpacked how it operated on 00:16:48.379 --> 00:16:51.639 multiple contradictory levels. We saw how it 00:16:51.639 --> 00:16:54.299 utilized the flexible middle ground format of 00:16:54.299 --> 00:16:57.379 the commercial mixtape to secure massive major 00:16:57.379 --> 00:17:00.340 label distribution and streaming revenue while 00:17:00.340 --> 00:17:03.080 maintaining a grassroots reactionary urgency. 00:17:03.460 --> 00:17:05.859 We examined how it leveraged a premium roster 00:17:05.859 --> 00:17:08.859 of industry features and elite producers to ensure 00:17:08.859 --> 00:17:11.880 it had a richness of sound capable of cutting 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:13.980 to the the noise of a crowded, chaotic media 00:17:13.980 --> 00:17:16.140 market. And we looked at how its rollout was 00:17:16.140 --> 00:17:19.099 timed with razor sharp campaign trail precision 00:17:19.099 --> 00:17:21.839 culminating in a music video drop literally the 00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:24.680 night before the election to capture and capitalize 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:27.519 on the volatile energy of the 2016 political 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:30.380 landscape. All while grounding high level national 00:17:30.380 --> 00:17:33.460 discourse in the deeply personal realities of 00:17:33.460 --> 00:17:36.119 the artist's own incarcerated family. It is a 00:17:36.119 --> 00:17:38.440 remarkable case study in how the music industry 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:40.920 metabolizes current events. It truly is. And 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:42.839 before we go, I want to leave you, the listener, 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:45.059 with one final thought to mull over. I'd love 00:17:45.059 --> 00:17:47.519 to hear it. We rely on traditional history books, 00:17:47.980 --> 00:17:49.859 filled with transcripts of political speeches, 00:17:50.619 --> 00:17:53.339 archived news articles, and voter turnout statistics 00:17:53.339 --> 00:17:56.539 to record the facts of our past. Right. But facts 00:17:56.539 --> 00:17:59.259 alone rarely tell us how a moment actually felt 00:17:59.259 --> 00:18:01.660 to live through. That's very true. If you really 00:18:01.660 --> 00:18:03.920 want to understand the ground level anxieties, 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:07.099 the contradictions and the raw, unpolished mood 00:18:07.099 --> 00:18:10.240 of the electorate during a specific era, how 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:13.400 might future historians use commercial collaborative 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:16.339 mixtapes like campaign to read between the lines 00:18:16.339 --> 00:18:18.839 of history? That is a fascinating question to 00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:21.599 sit with. Maybe the truest record of an era isn't 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:23.819 found in the headlines, but in the audio polaroids 00:18:23.819 --> 00:18:25.640 we leave behind. I think you might be right. 00:18:25.769 --> 00:18:27.589 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:18:27.589 --> 00:18:30.150 dive. Keep asking questions, keep looking closely 00:18:30.150 --> 00:18:32.670 at the media you consume, and we warmly encourage 00:18:32.670 --> 00:18:35.230 you to keep exploring the history hidden right 00:18:35.230 --> 00:18:37.529 there within your favorite playlists. See you 00:18:37.529 --> 00:18:37.829 next time.