Tyga is the guy in your group of friends who no one particularly likes but is always just kind of there. He spent the past year burning what few bridges he had left—most memorably, in a depressing triangle between himself, ex-girlfriend Blac Chyna, and labelmate Drake—and decorating his Egypt-themed clothing store like an Illuminati VFW hall. His pet Siberian tiger was confiscated by California wildlife authorities. He's currently dating 17-year old Kylie Jenner; it's a creepy and presumably illegal mess that doesn't seem to bother her bro-in-law Kanye West, the executive producer of Tyga's fourth album. The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty should've been the biggest look of T-Raww's career; instead, it's the casualty of YMCMB's implosion that no one was especially concerned about. He threatened to leak it last fall, claiming his best work was being held hostage: crickets. You can just imagine him texting Kylie when The Gold Album debuted, at long last, on Spotify last week: "Can you remind your sisters to tweet the link to my album? ;)"
To be fair, the guy's had his share of moments. "Rack City" was the spark that ignited DJ Mustard's career; last summer's Young Thug-featuring "Hookah" was even better. He had semi-meaningful contributions to "Bedrock" and "Loyal", two very good, very dumb songs. And if you succumb to the darkness early on—letting it wash over you, baptizing you in its filth—his recent joint album with Chris Brown (Fan of a Fan) is actually pretty solid. It's exactly what you expect: a totally pleasant collection of Nic Nac beats, soaring hooks, and salty, chauvinist lyrics about how they're going to steal your girl and not even enjoy it, just to spite you. These songs succeed for reasons that have almost nothing to do with Tyga, but knowing when to show up is a talent in itself, and if there's one thing Tyga is great at, it's showing up.
As Tyga would tell it, The Gold Album is his "serious" album, the one where he stops being polite and starts getting real. If you preordered the album back in January, you got an early download of the two lead singles: passable Drake impression "Make It Work", and the Kanye and Mike Dean-produced "40 Mill". The latter came with a self-directed video, in which T-Raww goes straight M. Night Strugglerap, becomes infected by church-dwelling demons, and ultimately tosses a single rose into his own open casket. (There's also an inexplicable subplot about fitness.) Both of these songs are decent enough; neither of these songs appear on The Gold Album. Nor does "Hookah", or the enjoyable single with Justin Bieber, "Wait for a Minute", that's now almost two years old.