For the past few days word has been going around that Tyga’s new album, Careless World: Rise of the Last King, was going to be delayed due to a sample clearance issue that involved a speech by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. However, the album was able to stick to its February 21 release date (at least on iTunes), after Tyga apparently removed Dr. King’s speech. But before all of that, Tyga invited AllHipHop.com out to a private listening session last week in Santa Monica, California, where we got a chance to preview the album. What we found out was that Tyga, the artist, is more than just the rapper revealed in the popular “Rack City” song.
While it’s no five-star classic, a lot of people may be surprised overall by Careless World. AllHipHop.com went to the session thinking that all we would hear was straight club music, but the young, rising YMCMB star delivered a good major label debut album with assists from the likes of Busta Rhymes, Nas, J. Cole, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, and more. After the session, the normally reserved Tyga spoke with us for a few minutes about the new release:
AllHipHop.com: You remade your popular “Rack City” song for The Clippers and called it “Lob City.” How did that come about?
Tyga: Chris Paul hit me up and told me that the team practiced to “Rack City.” I decided to do “Lob City” based on all of the hype that they were receiving. I’ve been a Chris Paul fan for a long time.
AllHipHop.com: You’re still down with the Lakers too, right?
Tyga: Yeah, this is Los Angeles. Although I really think that they should not have traded Lamar Odom. To me, the team has gotten boring. I’m a big Kobe fan, but I feel like it’s just not the same anymore.
AllHipHop.com: Let’s talk about your many tattoos. Someone told me earlier that Lil Wayne put one of them on you?
Tyga: Oh, yeah, that was like 4 years ago.
AllHipHop.com: You trust Wayne with a tattoo needle? [laughter]
Tyga: It was just a few dots on the face. You can’t really mess that up [laughter].
AllHipHop.com: In 2008, there were a lot of other New West artists that had a nice buzz going, but it seemed like you just came out of nowhere at that time.
Tyga: I’ve been consistent since then. Maybe a lot of fans who were more in to the commercial than underground, feel like I came out of nowhere with “Rack City.” My fanbase has been there, and I think that’s another reason why “Rack City” is so big. Everything I do now is more impactful, because I’ve built such a good fanbase.
AllHipHop.com: Why did you chose Careless World for the album title? And what else do you have on the horizon?
Tyga: I wanted to do a theme album – something that relates to the world in my own words. I have the Careless World tour starting on February 21. We are doing that for about two and a half months here in the States, and then we’re going to take it overseas.
AllHipHop.com: You’ve got Nas on this record – a Hip-Hop legend! How did you land that feature?
Tyga: I sent him a record about seven months prior to the “Kings and Queens” song. He never got back to me. One day, he just called me out of the blue and congratulated me on my success and asked if I had anything that he wanted to send to him. So I sent him the “Kings and Queens” song that night, and he sent it back the next day. Shout out to Nas – that sh*t is crazy.