In the Song “Decline” Ft Lil Baby, Tjay closes the distance between these two modes of being. His girl thinks he’s ignoring her calls but he’s simply inundated by feelings of distress (“I don’t be pressing decline/Just so much be on my mind”). His phone connects him to her and creates a buffer when the traumas of his past and present start to overwhelm him. It’s one of his most thoughtfully written songs yet. “Woulda had a cap and gown if Smelly was still around/But it’s pain in me, thinking about it make me get so angry,” he sighs, the clearest representation of causality this side of Waka Flocka’s “When my little brother died, I said, ‘Fuck school.’” Baby’s whine pairs nicely with Tjay’s singsong, and his verse builds to the song’s conclusion: “I don’t care for listening, you gon’ have to show me.” It’s clear on “Decline” that, for Lil Tjay, not answering isn’t always the same as disregarding.