RAVING WITH TY DOLLA $IGN

An extra-ordinary night inside the superstar's acid house-themed music video "Motion"

Today’s post is paywalled because it’s a juicy tale that may or may not be permitted for public consumptions under the terms of a corporate NDA lmao… so I’m saving it for my inner sanctum… please subscribe to support this brave werk, thank you!!

My life has been full of slutty sexcapades and hare-brained money schemes, but up until recently, I have never been a music video ho. So when a sis hit me up the other night, asking if I wanted to be an extra in Ty Dolla $ign’s new “acid house”-themed music video for his latest song “Motion,” I immediately texted back “sure!!!”—because I am a girl who loves getting paid to party, especially if it entails popping molly with a famous hip-hop star in a corporate rave simulation. 

Moments later, my friend texted me the music video’s moodboard. “Think late 80s, early 90s Hacienda rave vibes…” she said, referring to the UK nightclub that helped spark the acid house movement, “... pretty casual and kinda grimy.” 

I opened the PDF. Stills from the movie Trainspotting popped up next to eyeliner-smeared Keith Flint and The Prodigy, that iconic pic of Bjork canoodling with Goldie’s Stussy sweater, and various disheveled ravers in bucket hats, UFO pants, and oversized T-shirts with neon yellow smiley faces. 

“You’re sweaty, rolling on ecstasy…” instructed the text in italics.   

I was so confused. Why was this celebrity—best known for horny hip-hop ballads that show off his silky vocal chords—flirting with underground rave culture by labeling his latest track as an acid house song? Sure, this wasn’t the first time Ty Dolla $ign has dipped into dance music—he’s collaborated with some of the biggest EDM DJs, like Skrillex, Tiesto, Alesso, Swedish House Mafia, and Boys Noize. Other A-list pop stars have also recently recruited dance music DJs on their tracks—Beyonce has worked with everyone from Honey Dijon to Kelman Duran, while Drake was spotted partying in Ibiza after making a banger with Black Coffee last year.

Yet, this latest appropriation of nostalgic rave references felt different.

Acid house is a hissing, squelchy subgenre of house music that came out of Chicago in the 80s, and its raw minimalism is a far cry from the maximalist drops and sugary hooks of main-stage EDM. The last time acid house was picked up by the tabloids was in the 90s, when the subculture stoked a moral panic in the UK press over “the evils of ecstasy,” inspiring the government to crack down on rave culture with the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in 1994. 

Ty Dolla $ign’s embrace of acid house aesthetics seemed to signal the reputation shift that underground rave culture is enjoying in the 2020s, when raving’s sybaritic subversiveness has become synonymous with post-pandemic release and recovery—a welcome relief from an increasingly bleak and algorithmically-flattened cultural landscape. In June, when stopped on the star-studded streets of Hollywood by TMZ, Ty Dolla $ign hinted that “Motion” was the first track off his upcoming dance-focused album. “It’s what I want to happen with music this summer,” he said. “Change the frequency from all the negative shit to some dancefloor shit, some positive shit.”

I wanted to believe the sunny intentions behind Ty’s dance-flavored new direction. But a sour cynicism towards the corporate gentrification of rave culture prevented me from going all-in—especially when I realized the song itself sounded nothing like acid house.

Instead, “Motion” is a pretty generic pop song with an elegant, lounge-y beat that fuses R&B and amapiano—a bright and jazzy subgenre of South African house music known for jazzy elements, chill tempos, and percussive baselines. The song was produced by Will Larsen and Stryv, Norwegian producers whose previous work includes hits for K-pop singer TAEYEON, as well as Scandinavian EDM stars Kygo and Galantis. In other words—“Motion” is the commercial product of the deep-state corporate music industry machine, and its association with acid house culture is superficial, at best.

So did a music executive at Atlantic Records read Pinterest’s latest trend report—which states that “techno style, rave fashion and house music outfits are all trending up”—and decide that mouth-clenched, drooling gurn faces are the new cultural markers of “cool”?

Or is it possible that Ty Dolla $ign has escaped the basic trappings of Hollywood fame and is secretly going to underground warehouse parties… that he’s actually One Of Us?! 

I would spend the entire music video shoot trying to figure this mystery out—a harrowing journey that took me deep into the music video industrial complex, testing the limits of my mental and physical fortitude as I eventually infiltrated Ty Dolla $ign’s stoner posse itself…