Ty Dolla Sign's 2016 Election Time Capsule

There's a version of 2016 that gets told through polling numbers, cable news chyrons, and electoral college maps. This episode tells a different version — through the music Ty Dolla Sign was releasing that year, and what it reveals about the cultural frequency of a moment that felt, even while it was happening, like it was being watched from two different planets at once.

Ty Dolla Sign spent 2016 everywhere. He appeared on more than two dozen songs that year as a featured artist — on tracks with Future, Post Malone, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, and dozens of others. He released his debut studio album Campaign in October 2016, timed to coincide with the final weeks before the presidential election. The title was not accidental. The cover art showed him against an American flag. The framing was delibe ...