Hot 21 Radio

Tyga

Full of swaggering braggadocio and gangsta aggression, rap star Tyga exudes the hip hop traditions of his native Compton, South Los Angeles but managed to cross over to college audiences and invade the pop charts. Born Michael Stevenson on November 19, 1989, in Compton, California, his stage name Tyga came from his resemblance to golfer Tiger Woods and the acronym Thank You God Always. He started putting out independent mixtapes in 2007, which gained him a lot of attention. Championed by his cousin Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, he signed with the Decaydance label run by Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz and toured his debut album No Introduction (2009) to crowds of rock and emo fans. His big break came when he appeared at the MTV Music Awards and struck up a friendship with Lil Wayne, who signed him to his Young Money label and guested on Tyga’s 2012 single “Faded”. He featured on Chris Brown's Top 20 hit “Deuces” and reached Number 7 in the US with his signature anthem “Rack City”. Tyga’s album Careless World: Rise of the Last King (2012) made the Top 5 and featured guest appearances from Drake, Nicki Minaj, Busta Rhymes and Pharrell Williams. Follow-up Hotel California (2013) also made the US Top 10, although his next three albums – The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty (2015), BitchImTheShit2 (2017), and Kyoto (2019 - did not fare as well on the charts. He collaborated with Chris Brown on the album Fan of a Fan: The Album (2015). Things turned around commercially for Tyga when he released his seventh album, Legendary, in 2019. The album reached Number 17 on the Billboard 200 and went Top 10 in the R&B and Rap charts. The album also entered the Top 20 in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Switzerland.  Throughout his career, he continued to release a series of mixtapes and made guest appearances on tracks by Birdman, YG, Travis Porter, Waka Flocka Flame, The Game, Major Lazer, Ty Dolla $ign, ASAP Ferg, and many others. In 2021, Tyga and Ty Dollar $ign appeared on the track “Chosen”, which was taken from the deluxe edition of rapper Blxst’s EP No Love Lost.