Review Summary: An average rapper, that was supplied with great production that he still couldn't bring any personality to.
Tyga has had a very rough week, in what should have been a celebratory one. The internet went crazy with jokes as he released his album, exclusively on Spotify at the time, as a surprise drop. The problem is nobody had knew it dropped and from there the jokes began. But, looking past that this album release is something to celebrate. He now has released his first album from under his own label "Last Kings" and is now from under the wing of Cash Money.
When you listen to the album, it's pretty hard to understand why in the first place Birdman decided to hold it from releasing. It's not a disappointing album at all, especially when measured up against the standards of his previous efforts. The Gold Album is without a doubt Tyga's greatest project released commercially to date. But, you have to ask yourself if that's really saying much. The best parts of this album really have little to do with Tyga himself, but with the executive producer Kanye West and his crew including one Mike Dean. This album could easily be one of the best-produced albums of the year, that's how much of an advantage Tyga was given with this team.
And Tyga works with this production in his best way possible, through the project he shows he is capable of some creativity. With the different voice manipulation he displays as on tracks like Shaka Zulu and God Talk, whilst in the same tracks he shows where he shamelessly will bite even those he's haven disagreements this instance being Drake using the exact same cadence he's used on his song "Started From the Bottom," while on "God Talk" the beat sounds like a direct, but better sounding, rip of "6 God." When you go into a Tyga project the focus should rarely be on lyricism, as for the most part he's going to do very little to make an impression in that department. Meaning the features that he has to stand out on in flow, creativity, and overall sonically pleasing music have to be top notch.
I don't think we will ever get a completely out of this world project where he displays different flows whilst giving a completely different sound that will blow you away. And it's not necessarily needed for Tyga because from him much of what expected is just a fun music experience. He is able to provide that on The Gold Album, he is able to make music that you will just play for the heck of it. Of course, there are some bad songs like "Pleazer," where Boosie delivers a lackluster verse and "Hollywood N****z" where the music just sounds forced and anticlimactic. But, then there are songs where he nails is although he is adopting elements from another artist like on "God Talk" or "Pure Luxury," if we decided to disregard the cringe chorus about "virgin blood."
I can't stress enough the importance the production played in the enjoyment of this project. Had this just been an instrumental tape it would have still been a great listen. You can feel and hear the obvious Kanye influence on these songs production department. They leave remnants of "Yeezus" production with a trap influenced twist that creates its own dark and different sound. Which plays greatly into the one noticeable feature on the album, being his former boss Lil' Wayne, who lays a woozy, codeine riddled chorus about his dawgs leaving a lasting impression on the track.
Tyga isn't that guy that will blow you away with his creativity or weirdness. But, he is that guy that you can put on when you just feel like listening to something. He's that guy that you can rely on for great production, with a nice flow to go along with it. It's not thought provoking music to be dissected or look to for future trends, it's hit making and party music to be enjoyed. Which I can say were things he fulfilled in this project while improving from his previous.
