Ty Dolla $ign Is Releasing A New Mixtape This Month Ty Dolla $ign Managers: Kevin Liles and Will Dzombak

Company: KWL and Taylor Gang Entertainment

The Road To The XXL 2014 Freshmen Cover: WD: We started out just not trying to rush out a single, trying to build a large fanbase because he does make unbelievable music. [We were] not trying to just rush him to the radio, [we were] trying to introduce him to people. He’s been a songwriter for a long time so he had a lot of his own relationships, and so when he really started putting the gas on his own music, it really took off in a great way for him.



KL: One thing Will and I helped him do was get a point of view. Helped him, instead of doing records that might not fit, [he could] write them, but he needed to perform records from a certain point of view. As soon as we got that, then KWL and Taylor Gang came together to do this, we knew we got something special. We don’t want Ty to just be a record, he has to be a movement. He needs a point of view and has to be a brand, [and] that’s something we’re working on every day.



WD: [When Ty found out he made the class] he was super excited. It was something that was really important to him and he felt like he really was recognized for all the work he had been putting in for years.



KL: It’s a lot of things that people don’t look forward to like they used to look forward to because the landscape has changed with technology and some magazines not being as viable. But the Freshmen Class and XXL, there couldn’t have been anything better for him. It was something, I think, for him, was just another light in the tunnel for him to say, “I’m doing the right thing, I’m with the right people. I’m making the right choices.” It’s just a true honor, not something that people take lightly, on our side nor did he. —As told to Miranda Johnson