Founder

Tyshawn“Fly Ty”Johnson

Senior Vice President of A&R, Epic Records
Founder & CEO, Against Da Grain Entertainment

Queens-raised. Atlanta-based.

FounderAgainst Da Grain

Senior VPEpic Records

QueensNew York

AtlantaGeorgia

01 — Roots

Queens made the instinct.

Tyshawn Johnson grew up in Queens and left school in the ninth grade. He was locked up at seventeen. Inside, he earned a GED and then a bachelor's degree, and he kept working — he became the first person to record a song from jail, over the phone, onto a major-label album, on DJ Clue's The Professional Pt. 2 for Roc-A-Fella.

02 — Against Da Grain

Against Da Grain made it independent.

The Desert Storm camp — DJ Clue, DJ Envy — held him down through the sentence. He came home and built. First as an artist in his own right, cutting records with French Montana, Jadakiss, Offset, Juelz Santana, Lil Durk and Jazze Pha. Then as the executive he is now.

03 — Epic

Epic made the reach bigger.

Today he is Senior Vice President of A&R at Epic Records and the founder and CEO of Against Da Grain Entertainment, an Atlanta label operating in partnership with Epic and Sony Music. He signs across dancehall, country trap, soul, pop and drill — and he signs on instinct, not on analytics.