TyFontaine, Washington DC rapper, songwriter, and singer has been fairly well known in the underground rap scene for a while now, and it’s about time listeners got the album “ASCENSION2: act i,” a sequel to “Ascension”, which was released in June 2021. The top songs from Ascension reeled in 1 to 2 million streams on Spotify as of today.
With the original “Ascension” album having more of a futuristic sounding trap feel to it, “ASCENSION2: act ii” is a different but welcome change that focuses more on vibey, summer trap beats.
“ASCENSION2: act i” is a refreshing new take on sounds that TyFontaine has built up since the original without sounding too cookie cutter. It resembles much of a summer album, something to put on while driving to the beach or late night home from work.
It definitely takes a slower approach on some tracks but keeps the same energetic delivery he had on the first project. A huge difference that fans will notice on this project is the lack of features, which was on the deluxe version of the original “Ascension” and would’ve been a huge plus to this project, but it seems as he’ll be going solo on both acts of “Ascension 2,” as seen in a reply to a fan on Instagram. Ty also said, “it’s the first act. All new songs on act ii”.
Getting into some songs off of the album, the opener, titled “spotlight,” seems to take some inspiration from his previous album “Beautiful Michi Girls” in terms of the topic of romance and the slower, more poppy vibes from BMG.
This project also works well as a summer album, something someone could play on a road trip to the beach. Most of the songs that stood out are the more energetic tracks, such as “ash kash,” “parlay” and “studio junkie.”
A lot of those tracks add to the feeling that this album wants to be different from the first “Ascension,” but also carries elements over without diluting the overall project. The biggest highlight after a few more listens is the song “computer S3X,” which is a bit of an extreme title based on what the lyrics talk about.
One of the standout lyrics was “you’re no good for my mental and every time I’m with you I let go,” which paints a picture of Fontaine recognizing that this love interest may not be the best for him and that being in that person’s presence might affect his sense of self-control.
Slower songs, such as “only one” and “don’t give up on me,” compliment the more lively ones, creating a good mixture of both.
The only less substantial song lyrically would probably be track 3, titled “gotham,” where more of the oddball lyrics come in such as “I’m a fat-a– motherf—r, you come between me and my chicken (Me and my chicken).”
The top-tier production on this song does save it from being considered a bad song in any sense of the word, even if the lyrics do come off as a little weird.
That production that Ty uses does appear throughout the rest of the project. And if TyFontaine chooses to go on like this for the next few albums that he drops, longtime fans will surely have him on repeat going forward.
