Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Album Review: ‘Fuk Wat They Talkin Bout’

LAST KINGS MUSIC
LAST KINGS MUSIC

☆☆☆☆☆

After selling an abysmal 2,200 first-week copies of his latest studio album, “The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty” in late June, California rapper Tyga decided to attempt a quick career rebound with his defiantly titled 15-track mixtape “Fuk Wat They Talkin Bout” in late August. This time, the finished project was even worse, exposing the 25-year-old as a lyrically challenged, socially immature swag rapper with a propensity for repetitive and superficial storytelling and a weakness for simplistic, unimpressive choruses.

Tyga indeded for “Fuk Wat They Talkin Bout” to quiet the many critics of his recent professional and personal life choices. In the past year alone, the Cash Money Records signee has been embroiled in a love triangle involving a teenager and the mother of his child, dissed senior label mate and rap icon Drake, had his pet Siberian tiger confiscated by local wildlife authorities and failed to record a single Top 10 track on “The Gold Album.” In short, the Compton native was in need of a win. Instead of focusing on his desire to return to the height of his success with a variety of hit singles, including “Hookah” featuring Atlanta oddball Young Thug and his very own gems “Rack City” and “Faded,” Tyga chose to focus on his lavish excesses and his relationship with 18-year-old socialite Kylie Jenner, to disastrous effect.

“The Gold Album” flopped both critically and commercially despite the musical production provided by hip-hop legend Kanye West. Without West’s touch, “Fu k Wat They Talkin Bout” dropped to even further depths. The resulting mixtape is a disjointed assortment of entertaining beats ruined by lazy, offensive wordplay that leaves a bad taste and fails to make a point.

T-RAWW begins the mixtape with the boisterous track “Bu$$in Out Da Bag,” which features Tyga bragging about his expensive foreign cars and having sex with women in the back of said cars. Though the beat provides some bounce and a hard 808-drum that gets heads nodding, the content in the song is generic and dull. This would not be an issue of course, except for the fact that the following tracks “Glitta,” “Master $uite,” “Turbans,” and “Death Row Chain” are composed of the same combination of thumping drum-heavy beats accompanied by generic references to lavish new jewelry, houses and his apparently wide array of weapons. After the continued use of a slow, chanting lyrical flow and the aforementioned tired motifs comes Tyga’s unfulfilled and overused promise to “turn up on everybody.” Immediately, it is clear that the rapper wants vindication for the flop that was “The Gold Album,” but also that he is incapable of telling a compelling story or having his lyrics stand out over the car-friendly street beats.

HIP HOP WIRED
HIP HOP WIRED

Increasingly, the theme of the mixtape shifts to the 25-year-old’s now-official relationship with Jenner, who only turned 18 Aug. 10, just two weeks before the release of “Fuk Wat They Talkin Bout.” The controversial and legally suspect relationship is clearly a source of pride for T-RAWW, who in “Master $uite” boasts of “watching his b—h masturbate” and receiving oral sex “until her face is blue.” Though never shy about including sexually explicit lyrics in his songs (he once released a song titled simply “Bouncin’ On My Dick”), the mention of engaging in such lewd physical acts with someone so young and so well-known comes as a bit of a shock.

Jenner is mentioned in the remaining 10 tracks on the mixtape, almost always in a sexual light, as a type of high-profile trophy that Tyga feels as though he has won. The most egregious lyrics, both sexually and emotionally, come in the 9th track, “$timulated.” Accompanied by an unimaginative music video in which Jenner strides into Tyga’s beachfront house, where the couple embraces and kisses, the song is clearly meant to ratchet up the shock value and celebrity gossip on a mixtape bereft of much meaningful lyricism or content.

Tyga raps, “They say she young, I should’ve waited/She a big girl, dog, when she stimulated.” Apparently untroubled by admitting to having sex with Jenner when she was underage, T-RAWW goes on to describe his sexual exploits with Jenner and his hatred toward the critics of their relationship. “Shut the fuck and let me finish, baby/I’ll let you finish later, why the fuck you so opinionated?” appears to be both a clear threat to Tyga’s detractors, and a reference to his dominant sexual role over the 18-year-old. “$timulated” is punctuated by the hook “I’m puttin’ in, I’m penetratin’/I’m gettin’ big, I’m stimulated.” With this unartistic marking of his territory, Tyga crosses the line from unapologetic to lewd and musically unappealing.

The biggest problem with this mixtape is that it will neither satisfy the lyrically minded hip-hop fan nor the admirer of braggadocio usually associated with West Coast rap. Presumably the average person isn’t nodding along to someone bragging about a few fancy items and having sex with an 18-year-old for the majority of 15 tracks.

A larger issue is Tyga’s unhealthy opinion toward the role and ideal qualities of women. On the track “Rap$tar,” Tyga raps in the chorus, “Rap star, need fast cars, cash in large amounts/I need a bitch with an ass that bounce/A fat ass and titties that bounce.” This grouping of women as items to accompany cars and money is insulting in its own right, but especially so if Tyga espouses these superficial qualities as important in his significant other, who is only just now coming into adulthood.

In sum, instead of asking the critics “Why the f— you so opinionated?” maybe Tyga should ask himself what story he has to tell. If a relationship with a famous 18-year-old was the only thing new to happen in Tyga’s life since “The Gold Album,” maybe he should have kept quiet.

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