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The Young Money record label has been responsible for a lot of new up and coming rappers over the past decade, making stars out of many that hadn’t yet got their chance. Included in the bunch is Michael Stevenson, who we know better these days as Tyga. Tyga has been recording tracks since 2008, and has a lot of success to show for it to this point. Many of the headlines in recent years for the man now in his 30s, though, have been centered around his relationships.

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Tyga was born on November 19, 1989 in the hotbed of rap music: Compton, California. Tyga wanted to become a rapper at a young age, and he would start to freestyle rap and record his own work. Thankfully for Tyga, he had connections to the established Travie McCoy of the group Gym Class Heroes. With that, he was ready to release his first album.

It was a big step for Tyga, who at one point would leave school because of his passion project. “I dropped out of high school when I was like 15, so I just focused on doing music,” he said. “It’s all I wanted to do; I didn’t want to work or anything else. I took all the negativity and obstacles that came with life, and I just put it in the music.”

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That debut album came in 2008 and was called “No Introduction”, and featured a collaboration with McCoy called “Coconut Juice”. Tyga then signed on with Young Money Entertainment, landing his first top five hit with “BedRock” in 2009. He had multiple singles that followed, and in 2012 had his first hit album with “Careless World: Rise of the Last King”.

The album reached number four on the charts and included his biggest solo song to date called “Rack City”. “Faded” also performed well on the charts, and Tyga followed up his success with the albums “Hotel California” and “The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty”. There were some songs that charted fairly well, but they didn’t find the success that he had during his first album.

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During the earlier part of his career, Tyga had been in a relationship with model Blac Chyna (who would later go on to be in a relationship with Rob Kardashian). The two would split up after they were engaged, and Tyga would also get involved with the Kardashian family. Tyga started a relationship with Kylie Jenner, which drew a lot of criticism as she was not yet 18 years old. They confirmed their relationship shortly after she had that milestone birthday.

During their relationship, Tyga decided to drop a lot of money on a present for his then-girlfriend. On that 18th birthday, Tyga had gotten a $320,000 white Ferrari for Jenner, putting it in her name. However, it wasn’t a full out purchase, as it was reported that he had leased the vehicle. The car was ultimately repossessed, with Jenner buying him a Bentley. However, the relationship wouldn’t last as the two went their separate ways in 2017.

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Since then, Tyga has released three albums. The first came with 2017’s “B****ImTheS***2”, which didn’t crack the top 100 of the charts. The following year, he released “Kyoto”, which didn’t even get to the top 200. Finally, in 2019, Tyga got a taste of success again with the release of “Legendary”, which was a top 20 album that was certified gold. He has had a couple of hit songs during that time, including a collaboration with Offset from Migos called “Taste” that topped out at number eight.

When talking about what he does, Tyga says that “I’m making the music that I love and I want to hear. At the same time, things like making money, making crazy money - you gotta find ways to reach to everybody but uplift everybody...Making music is like being the president: You can’t tell people you’re going to make health care free to get them behind you, but when you get that role, you don’t do it.”

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Some have said that Tyga has been a bit of a flash in the pan since most of his success came early, with some critics saying he’s only in the headlines because of his relationships in the mainstream. “I never wanted to be that fad type of artist,” Tyga says, hoping to create more hits in the future. “When I looked up to artists, watching TV, I wanted to see somebody. I wanted to touch that person. I wanted to sound like them. I wanted to move like them. That’s what I want my fans to do. So that’s why, everything that I do, the music I make, how I dress, it’s all based off my lifestyle.”