Ty Dolla $ign is putting some major respect on Leon Thomas’ name. Following a standout performance at the Wireless Festival in London, the Grammy-nominated artist and producer is making it clear that the future of R&B has a new face and it belongs to his signee.
“We started our record company EZMNY, me and Shawn Barron, and signed Leon Thomas, who is now the new king of this sh*t. He’s the easiest artist I’ve worked with ever in life,” Ty told Billboard. “He’s the new example of what an artist should be, in my eyes.”
Get this, Ty didn’t just praise Thomas for his voice and songwriting skills. What left the most profound impression was the young artist’s vision and meticulous approach to his craft. Ty shared a story from a pivotal moment at a label meeting that showed just how prepared and locked in Thomas really is.
“We were in a label meeting. EZMNY, Motown and Capitol. When we go into this meeting, this man pulls out his laptop and asks for it to be hooked up to the TV so we can talk about what’s going to happen with this new album. He pulls up a f**king PowerPoint display,” Ty recalled. “These are the colors I want to use. This is the stage. These are videos, and the people I want to work with for the videos. And these are the people who I want to style me. And this is the work.”
What’s more, it was Thomas’s self-driven focus and creative clarity that truly set him apart.
“A lot of people need to give them ideas. You have to make it for them, and he showed me there are people who know the whole thing,” Ty explained. “You go years and years of f**king with different artists and them blaming you for the way their success went when it’s really on you, just like how it was all on me.”
Leon Thomas has the résumé to back up the praise. His second album, MUTT, dropped in September 2024 to critical acclaim. Billboard and VIBE both named it the number one R&B album of the year, with the project landing high on several other year-end lists.
What y’all think, is Ty on point or nah?