West Coast emcee Tyga released his newest album, “NSFW,” on Friday, extending a series of projects that have represented the doldrums of his career. “NSFW” sees Tyga make a half-effort to revisit his old ways and channel his old sound, although his attempt to salvage his future in music will likely be in vain.
Things weren’t always so dire for Tyga, who emerged as an exciting prospect in the late ‘00s Compton music scene through a connection in the industry. Tyga ran in the same circles as other West Coast up-and-comers of that era, like Kendrick Lamar, and even started his own label, G.E.D., with cosigns from future hip-hop icons like Schoolboy Q.
Tyga was never able to follow up that hype with consistent success and, during the mid-2010s, his sales took a nosedive. Later, his high-profile breakup with Kylie Jenner inspired his pop album, “Kyoto,” which was received even more poorly than his prior flops. Critics excoriated his choice to sing on the album, a department in which he sorely lacks.
In a way, “NSFW” is something of a return to form for the rapper, abandoning his attempts at becoming a singer to double-down on pure bars. Unfortunately, Tyga’s original style wasn’t that great anyway, nor was his dubious ability to entertain as a solo artist. Even though he has the world to prove, Tyga can’t seem to drum up the enthusiasm to lay down a single standout verse.
The album begins with a short monologue by Snoop Dogg before diving straight into the lyrics on “It Ain’t Safe.” Despite being the sole contributor to this song, Tyga’s performance seems to be begging for a feature or something to support his middling lyricism. He sounds like he’s on the verge of sleep, barely making it through the track’s two-minute runtime.
The next song on the project, “Adrenaline,” is a little bit more tolerable, with a simple but danceable beat that drives the track forward. Tyga lays down a few interesting bars, too, and seems to be actively engaged with his performance.
Even those fleeting moments of respite on this album are followed up by unlistenable tracks, like “GFU,” which centers on a mind-numbingly repetitive chorus from Tyga. When it seems it couldn’t get worse, a featured artist, Mike Sherm, takes to the mic and proceeds to deliver one of the worst verses of the year, complete with cringeworthy lyrics, gross sexual braggadocio and a plainly irritating vocal delivery. It’s hard to fathom how a song like “GFU” could make it past quality control at any major label, but Tyga’s life-draining presence seems to have breached all corporate containment.
And, just to rub salt in the wound, Tyga puts a pop-rap track on this already bloated album. “Underdawg” sees the rapper awkwardly harmonize with an admittedly passable instrumental. Some of his lyrics are so slurred as to be unintelligible, which may be this track’s singular saving grace.
“Dumb” is an all-around questionable track that features collaborations from emcees Big Sean and Flo Milli. Not even their contributions can save this song, whose strangely juvenile instrumental features whistles and cheap synth effects. As with most of the beats on this album, the percussion on this song sounds like it was thrown together in five minutes on FL Studio, and the mixing and mastering are practically nonexistent.
By this point on the album, getting through a two-minute song feels like a Herculean challenge. “Magnetic” amps up the difficulty even more by having Tyga sing, again, and slathering layers of ugly effects over his vocals. Even the feature, Shanseaa, gets caught up in this production blunder, having her performance echo into itself in a cacophonous mess on the back half of the track.
As if not content with just blighting his own legacy, Tyga decides to rope pop icon Cher into this disaster with his track “Found Someone,” using a Cher sample that’s credited as a feature. The sample is poorly integrated into the instrumental, which is itself poorly produced. This song also features the rap cliché of sampling a phone call, but even this is executed badly by using a voice filter that sounds hilariously fake.
Tyga ends this slog of an album with his single, “Slave,” which was already embarrassingly horrid on its initial release. The song sees Tyga brag about his sexual exploits in copious detail, as if to self-consciously reassure the audience that he does, in fact, live a lavish lifestyle. This track is pointless as a closer and broadly demonstrative of Tyga’s failure as an artist.
In all, “NSFW” is an album to be avoided. It’s an overlong exploration of everything wrong with Tyga’s musical style at worst, and a cynical cash grab at best. Very rarely does an album release with such a brazen lack of artistic merit or drive, and for that, Tyga can truly say he is accomplished.
