Ty Dolla $ign & J. Cole Hit RIAA Gold With “Purple Emoji”

Gold Certification: May 1, 2020

Yu Leseberg and Helen Yu, Prof. Law Corp has been working with Ty Dolla $ign for a decade now. Today, May 1, 2020, we celebrate the gold certification from RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for his single, “Purple Emoji,” featuring J.Cole  

Helen Yu notes “I’m always amazed and proud of how many hit records he’s been able to garner.” Ty also worked with well-known street artist, Gregory Siff on the cover art for “Purple Emoji.” The Brooklyn born Los Angeles based creative has made a slew of polarizing works of art drawing inspiration from anything like the Black Lives Matter movement to Vans footwear. Siff’s work has been featured in the pages of The New York Times and W Magazine, among many others.

“Purple Emoji” debuted on May 20, 2019, yet the record’s ability to still gain recognition during this (awful and unfortunate) global pandemic, proves how much of an influence Ty has on his fans and the industry. In an interview with Beat 1’s Zane Lowe, Ty explained how “Purple Emoji” came into sonic fruition.

"I was at this studio called Jungle City in New York working on Yandhi with Kanye. And then just turns out Cole was in the room right next to me. When I saw him I was like bro I got something to play you," he said. "I’m like, 'Yo, I just did this one I thought would be crazy for both of us.' So he came in my room, I played it for him immediately and he did his verse in five minutes."

It’s that innate ability to recognize a hit when he hears one coupled with the dexterity of a song making mastermind that has set Ty apart from his peers, and has made his collaborations rise to the top.  

YG "My Krazy Life" Anniversary

It’s been six years since Compton’s own YG has released his debut album My Krazy Life on March 18, 2014.

“March 18th for me marks a special day, the date serves for me as a good luck charm that I’ll always keep in pocket,” Helen Yu notes. “I’m proud to have been a big part of YG’s career especially our legal work on all the complex deals involving Drake, Nicki Minaj, Jeezy, Nipsey Hussle and many others on YG’s debut album on Def Jam.“ 

Yu has been able to help catapult his career from gangster rapper to a ubiquitous artist whose appeal transcends the palm tree lined streets that make up Los Angeles, the city, that birthed and raised him. He uses his LA roots as his muse for the music, and it’s proving to pay off.

“That’s why a lot of people respect me in L.A. that’s around my age group, because they saw me in the streets. They saw me at all these parties performing,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 2014. “Mustard was DJing. Ty [Dolla Sign] used to come perform with us. That’s how the sound that we have now was created — all the [stuff] we was doing when we was young, just our lifestyle. And when we sat back on it and looked at it, that’s how it was supposed to sound. It was some party gangsta [stuff], some real street [stuff] at the same time.”

“With an Artist like YG with deep LA hip hop roots there’s definitely a method to navigating the entertainment madness,” Yu concludes.

Most Streamed Albums of Last Year

As they say… it takes a village. In that spirit, Yu Leseberg proudly announces our contributions in negotiating legal agreements for songs contained on one-third of Billboard’s Top 10 most streamed albums of the past year, as noted in a recent New York Times article.

• Scorpion by Drake - named the most popular album of the year, according to Nielsen Music.

• Beerbongs & Bentleys by Post Malone - the artist’s first Number One, Grammy-nominated for Album of the Year, and tied for the RIAA’s top-selling album of 2018.

• Culture II by Migos - which entered the Billboard 200 at Number One, also tied for the RIAA’s top selling honors of 2018.

We congratulate our clients.  May they have an even brighter 2019.