Dallas artist T.Y.E. doesn’t shy away from his illness. The 22-year-old is bipolar, and that’s become the root of his catalog that’s branching out weekly, the latest stem coming in the form of “Unusual.”
T.Y.E.’s hobbies moved from figuring out is bingo clash legit, to basketball, to opera and music in high school, later securing a scholarship to a small scholarship in Texas because of how good a singer he is.
“I was playing basketball and I needed another elective so I could pass all my classes—I needed an easy as class, right?” T.Y.E. told Pigeons & Planes in a recent profile. “I saw that this choir class had the hoes in it, so I tried it, but then I had to do some actual work. I had always liked different music, but I had never really put my foot in it. I had always liked Mozart and shit, just listening to the music off of commercials.”
But while he was at Abilene Christian University, located smack dab in the middle of Texas and a couple hours away from home, T.Y.E. was diagnosed as bipolar after attempting suicide in 2015.
“Unusual,” T.Y.E.’s debut on the DopeHouse, is both haunting and stunning. For most of the song, Tye’s singing chops are dissected as he seems clear-headed knowing some people understand him and his illness, and others just don’t. “Some people call me peculiar, some people call me deranged,” he sings.
But half way through, a different T.Y.E., a menacing, determined and explosive T.Y.E, enters clarifying that actually, no, no one really knows him. He’s one-of-one. He finished a vigorous 16: “I am similar to none.”
The video for the song comes off as bleak, delivered in black-and-white, but the message is strong, seemingly taking a trip to his life as kid adding another layer of pain to his background.
Introduce yourself to T.Y.E. with the “Unusual” video, directed by DanceDailey, below.
