TYuS, the 20-year-old low-key R&B crooner from Portland debuts his first official project Never Forget.TYuS gained mainstream attention in 2014 via the leaking of a fake PartyNextDoor EP Férina, that’s a story in itself which you can read in full here.
In essence, the EP was a mixture of PartyNextDoor demos and re-pitched songs from TYuS which made him sound like PND. TYuS denied that he leaked the project and all the rest is history.
Being the inquisitive listener I am this actually made me want to indulge deeper into what other tracks TYuS had up his sleeve. Up to this point, TYuS had been very sporadic with his musical output and not necessarily that much different from PND in terms of sound.
Although, tracks like Silhouette and I Know began to give me the impression this guy had something.The turning point for me when I really started to play attention to TYuS output was when he began to strip away the layers of autotune and demonstrate his vocal range and creativity.
The first example I noted of this was his My Boo Cover (unlisted from his YouTube but you can still watch it here). This was then followed up with the lead single from the Never Forget project My Way.
The complete flip of narrative from the catchy player anthem My Way is the refreshing Faye. This track sees TYuS proclaiming his admiration for a lady in his life (Faye?) and how he sees a future between them. This smoothly transitions into Billboards which really feels like an acknowledgment of his steady come up “Going places that I’ve never been sh*t will never be the same”.
The subsequent two tracks Shapes&Sizes and Never Forget sees a jump into a more experimental range of R&B sound. Shapes&Sizes I feel would’ve sounded much better without the re-pitched vocals and Never Forget really has way too much going on for my liking with sounds.
The argument some people highlight to me when I bring TYuS music to them is it sounds too much like a PND and Bryson Tiller. This project as a whole hasn’t convinced me he’s fully out of that shadow of the leaders yet. Although, there are segments of the project where the production doesn’t overpower his vocals (the first 3 tracks) and this is his pocket in my opinion.
All in all, this is smooth R&B playlist which should sit well with fans of PND and Bryson Tiller, etc looking for similar sounding artists. In parts, it brings me back to the early 2000’s of R&B from Bobby V and Mario.
Top 3 tracks: My Way, Faye and Billboards
6.8/10
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