Ty Dolla Sign makes a star-studded ‘Campaign’ stop at the Palladium

Ty Dolla Sign was ready with an excuse in case he’d left an important name off the list of artists who’d joined him onstage at the Palladium.

“If I didn’t say it,” the Los Angeles-based rapper and singer explained near the end of Sunday’s concert, “I was high.”

Who could take offense after that?

In truth, even a stone-sober Ty Dolla Sign would’ve been forgiven for forgetting somebody, considering how many thank yous he had to dole out: Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, ASAP Rocky, G-Eazy, DJ Mustard and James Fauntleroy were among the high-profile guests he received over the course of the rowdy two-hour show. (At one point, he began to introduce Usher, then abruptly changed course; the veteran R&B star never appeared.)

This pile-up of cameos served as a demonstration of Ty Dolla Sign’s stature: how he’s become, over the last five years or so, a valued source of catchy hooks and hypnotic grooves for acts as diverse as Fifth Harmony (which drafted him for a verse on the top five pop hit “Work From Home”) and the unlikely trio of Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney (with whom he co-wrote the folksy “FourFiveSeconds”).

Sunday’s concert, which was live-streamed on Tidal, also advertised the musician’s ambitions; it was part of a larger event billed as Dolla Day that featured a pop-up apparel shop and a voter-registration drive. On Friday, Ty Dolla Sign released “Campaign,” a new album that touches on prison reform and the upcoming presidential election.

“ ‘Make America Great Again’ is really just ‘Make America White Again,’ ” says a voice at the end of a track called “No Justice,” which features vocals the rapper’s brother recorded in jail. At the Palladium, a man Ty Dolla Sign identified as his brother’s former cellmate appeared wearing a T-shirt that read, “Vote Yes on Prop 57,” a reference to the ballot measure that would revamp prison parole rules in California.

Yet for all the reach he was showing — and all his connections — Ty Dolla Sign made the deepest impression in a small, relatively quiet stretch midway through the show.

That’s when he came out accompanied only by a guitarist to do three of his most distinctive tunes: “Horses in the Stable,” “Stealing” and “Solid,” each a deceptively lovely R&B ballad that sets raunchy words against a delicate arrangement. (He returned to the idea later in “Zaddy,” in which the title rhymes with “no panties.”)

Ty Dolla Sign didn’t pioneer this approach. He’s the latest in a line of canny soul-music auteurs who stretch back through R. Kelly and Teddy Riley to Babyface, the last of whom appears on “Solid” on Ty Dolla Sign’s excellent 2015 album, “Free TC.”

But at a time when the most acclaimed male R&B singers are deep-thinking philosopher types like Maxwell and Frank Ocean, Ty Dolla Sign’s happy embrace of vulgarity provides a welcome jolt.

Fans take in Sunday’s concert.

(Mariah Tauger / For The Times )

You could tell these songs were important to him too. With his band mostly hidden behind a large video screen, Ty Dolla Sign had little to say about the sound at the Palladium until “Horses in the Stable,” when suddenly he began giving instructions to a stagehand.

For “Stealing” — about how his theft of women’s hearts makes him a criminal — he planted himself behind an old-fashioned microphone stand, the better to concentrate on his ragged but nimble vocals. And he even grabbed an acoustic bass to join a lengthy instrumental vamp at the end of “Solid” — hardly a standard move for a hip-hop hitmaker.

The busy remainder of Sunday’s gig had plenty of energy but felt less like Ty Dolla Sign’s show. Here was a guy being overwhelmed by some of the very dynamos he’d corralled, as when Lamar sprinted through his “Levitate” or Khalifa set the crowd cheering by walking onstage shirtless (which seemed to inspire the headliner to bare his chest as well).

Even Usher, by not turning up, managed to pull attention from the man onstage.

But maybe Ty Dolla Sign, now that he’s acquainted with real success, wasn’t worried about the appearance of control. To finish the concert, he invited most of his guests onstage for an all-hands rendition of one of his biggest hits, “Blasé.”

And as the screen flashed menacing police imagery and several hundred balloons dropped onto the crowd, the show seemed to transform into a political convention. Ty Dolla Sign, a power broker behind his own scene.

Twitter: @mikaelwood