2007–2010: No Introduction and mixtapes Tyga's career began with him releasing a multitude of demo tapes and mixtapes. His 2007 debut mixtape,
Young On Probation, garnered the attention of rapper and
Gym Class Heroes frontman,
Travie McCoy. Seeing talent in the artist, McCoy led him to sign a recording contract with
Fall Out Boy bassist
Pete Wentz's independent label
Decaydence Records. Tyga ended up performing on Fall Out Boy's "
This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" remix with McCoy and Lil' Wayne at the
2007 MTV Video Music Awards. McCoy stated that he "had [Tyga] sending me verses every other day. We started doing interviews, and he was like, 'This my big cousin Trav.' So a lot of people had the misunderstanding we were blood-related". It was preceded by the single "
Coconut Juice," featuring McCoy, which became his first entry on the
Billboard Hot 100. In addition to McCoy, the music video featured appearances by Pete Wentz and Lil' Wayne. In late 2008, Tyga signed a new record deal with
Lil Wayne's
Young Money Entertainment, which was a subsidiary of
Cash Money Records at the time. He appeared on the label's
posse cut hit single "
Bedrock" shortly after his signing. He later released the mixtape
Fan of a Fan with singer
Chris Brown and producers DJ Ill Will and DJ Rockstar. It featured other artists such as
Bow Wow, Lil Wayne, and
Kevin McCall featured in several tracks. Four tracks — "Holla at Me", "G Shit", "
No Bullshit" and "
Deuces" — were accompanied with music videos. The track "Deuces" was released as the lead single for the mixtape and reached number 14 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the
Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs; it was also nominated for
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the
53rd Grammy Awards. Tyga told MTV in an interview that the mixtape's production took just short of a week. "Deuces" was eventually included on Brown's fourth studio album,
F.A.M.E. (2011).
2011–2012: Careless World: Rise of the Last King Careless World: Rise of the Last King was his second studio album. The album was released on February 21, 2012, on Young Money Entertainment,
Cash Money Records, and
Universal Republic Records. It was a shift from the
poppy dance sound exemplified on his previous effort,
No Introduction, and geared towards the
gangsta rap style first heard in his collaborative album with Young Money,
We Are Young Money (2009). Tyga stated that the album shows he has grown up but still relates to the kids. In preparation for the album, Tyga released the mixtape
#BitchImTheShit in December 2011. The album was preceded by four singles. Its first, "
Far Away" (featuring
Chris Richardson), was released on May 17, 2011, and peaked at 86 on the
Billboard Hot 100. Its second, "
Still Got It" (featuring labelmate
Drake), was released on October 4, 2011, and peaked at 89 on the
Billboard Hot 100. Its third single, "
Rack City", was released on December 6, 2011. It first appeared on Tyga's
Well Done 2 mixtape, and was later listed to the album following its commercial success. It debuted at number 94 on the
Billboard Hot 100, and peaked at number eight. Its fourth single, "
Faded" (featuring label boss
Lil Wayne), was released on January 13, 2012. It peaked at number 33 on the chart. For the remainder of that year, Tyga made several guest appearances on other singles, most notably on the
Billboard Hot 100 entries "Snitches Ain't…" by
YG, "
Ayy Ladies" by
Travis Porter, and "
Get Low" by
Waka Flocka Flame. In August, he released the mixtape
Well Done 3, which spawned by the single "
Do My Dance" (featuring
2 Chainz). The song peaked at number 79 on the
Billboard Hot 100. Also that year, Tyga also produced and co-directed (with Justice Young) a multi-
AVN Award-nominated crossover
adult film,
Rack City: The XXX Movie, which starred
Skin Diamond, Jada Fire,
Ice La Fox, Sophie Dee,
Lexington Steele, Kristina Rose, London Keyes and Daisy Marie. He also signed the soundtrack, which includes the hits "Rack City" and "Faded" together with several original songs, and he appeared in the film in a non-sex role.
2012–2013: Hotel California Tyga's third studio album,
Hotel California, was released on April 9, 2013. The first single, "
Dope", was released on December 25. The sported a feature from rapper
Rick Ross.
187 the mixtape was released on November 30, 2012. It features remixes to songs such as
2 Chainz's "
I'm Different",
Meek Mill's "
Young & Gettin' It" and
GOOD Music's "
Clique", among others and new material. On episode three of Tyga's tour vlog Tyga confirmed four features on the upcoming album, including
Rick Ross,
Nicki Minaj,
Chris Brown, and
Wiz Khalifa. Tyga performed at Harvard University's Yardfest in the Spring of 2013, despite opposition from critics who've signed a petition seeking to keep him away over what they call his "violently
misogynistic lyrics". At this time, Tyga collaborated with singer
Sabi on her song "Cali Love".
Hotel California was released on April 9, 2013. The album featured guest appearances from Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz,
Game, Wiz Khalifa,
Future and
Jadakiss. Along with
production by
Cool & Dre,
D. A. Doman,
DJ Mustard,
Detail, Mars of
1500 or Nothin',
The Olympicks, and
SAP among others. The album was supported by three official singles — "
Dope" which features Rick Ross, "
For the Road" featuring Chris Brown, and "
Show You" featuring Future, along with the promotional single "
Molly". The album was met with generally mixed reviews from
music critics. It also was less successful than his debut album commercially, debuting at number seven on the U.S.
Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 54,000 copies in the United States.
2013–2015: The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty On August 27, 2013, Tyga released a new single with DJ Mustard, "Throw It Up". It was also revealed that he was working on two new mixtapes,
Black Thought 3 and
Well Done 4, as well as
The Gold Album. On October 21, 2013, Tyga premiered "
Wait for a Minute" featuring
Justin Bieber. It was released to
iTunes the following day. He then confirmed that an album would be released in early 2014. He also explained that the album would, be more "way less commercial". He also said "I felt like
Hotel California was more commercial and I made more radio-type records. This album is straight rap." Then on April 9, 2014, Tyga released a song called "
Hookah" which features the rapper
Young Thug. On May 1, 2014, Tyga made a tweet referring to
Kanye West,
Mike Dean, and his own producer Jess Jackson with a hash-tag The Gold Album. Kanye West served as the executive producer for the album, which was slated for release on November 18, 2014. Tyga was also featured on
Chris Brown's single "
Loyal", he was featured on the video version, the song since then peaked at number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100. On May 28, 2014, Tyga released a new song entitled "
Real Deal" via
SoundCloud. "Real Deal" was later released on
iTunes on August 1, 2014. On September 12, 2014, Tyga announced via his
instagram that his new single titled "
40 Mill" would be produced by
Kanye West,
Mike Dean, Dupri and his own producer
Jess Jackson, artwork, The release date was not revealed though. The album was set to have features from
Justin Bieber,
Young Thug,
Kanye West,
Chris Brown, and
Drake. Tyga criticized Drake in an October 2014 interview, calling Drake "fake" and said that he did not like
Nicki Minaj. On October 21, 2014, Tyga lashed out on his record label Young Money Entertainment, reporting that his album was completed, but that his music was being "held hostage" by the label, who would not allow him to release it, and stated that he was considering leaking the album. On December 4, 2014, Tyga made a tweet declaring his project,
The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty would be released independently due to not being on good terms with label
Cash Money Records. In February 2015, Tyga released a collaborative album with Chris Brown, titled
Fan of a Fan: The Album. Supported by the No. 21 peaking
Billboard single "
Ayo", the album peaked at No. 7 on the
Billboard Hot 200 and featured guest appearances from
50 Cent,
T.I.,
Pusha T,
Wale,
Ty Dolla Sign,
Schoolboy Q,
Boosie Badazz, and
Fat Trel. On June 23, 2015, Tyga released
The Gold Album for streaming exclusively on
Spotify then later on
Apple Music. The album became his worst selling album to date, selling roughly 2,000 units on its opening week. His reality show ''
Kingin' with Tyga'' premiered on July 24, 2015, on
MTV2.
2016–2017: Signing to GOOD Music and BitchImTheShit2 On September 7, 2016, Kanye West, who, like Tyga, was in a relationship to a
Kardashian at the time, announced that he had signed Tyga to his
GOOD Music imprint, under the aegis of
Def Jam Recordings. On July 17, 2017, it was announced that Tyga will join as a series regular in the third season of the
VH1 slasher television series
Scream. He starred in the role of Jamal Elliot.
2018–present: Kyoto, commercial resurgence, Legendary and NSFW On February 16, 2018, Tyga released his sixth studio album,
Kyoto. The album was panned by critics and sold poorly, becoming his first album to fail to chart anywhere. On May 16, 2018, Tyga released the single "
Taste" featuring
Offset of
Migos. The song was a hit, becoming one of the biggest songs of summer 2018 and peaking at number 8 on the US
Billboard Hot 100. It marked Tyga's first entry on the Hot 100 in three years, since 2015's "
Ride Out", and is certified 9×
platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song is considered the catalyst for Tyga's return to the mainstream music spotlight after almost 5 years of poor sales and negative reviews, being considered his "comeback" record. Following the success of "Taste", Tyga released a number of other singles throughout the latter of 2018, beginning with "Swish", which was certified
gold, In 2019, YG released the single "
Go Loko", which featured Tyga. He stated, "We wanted to do something different to kinda try to bring all Latins together" and "Even YG could tell you, he grew up around all Mexicans, so we really wanted to do something to give back to the culture." In July 2020, Tyga partnered with businessman
Robert Earl to launch a virtual kitchen brand called Tyga Bites, which uses existing restaurants' kitchens to produce branded menu items such as boneless chicken wings for delivery service only. In 2021, Tyga competed on the
sixth season of
The Masked Singer as "Dalmatian". He was the first of Group B to be eliminated. In 2024, Tyga announced his eighth studio album, titled
NSFW (short for "Not Safe for Work"). It was released on February 7, 2025. In May 2025, Tyga arrived in
Russia and performed at the
CSKA Arena in Moscow. In 2025, Tyga featured on the
Ciara single "Dance with Me", appearing on the latter's eighth studio album,
CiCi, which was released on August 22, 2025. == Personal life ==