With a rangy set of friends from
Fall Out Boy to
Lil Wayne, it was obvious from the start that
Tyga was not your everyday rapper from Compton. After recording a mixtape and promoting it around the city,
Tyga ran into his cousin,
Gym Class Heroes member
Travis McCoy, in the Flight Club L.A. sneaker shop. Their conversation went from shoes to rappers, and as
Travis' group went from unknowns to MTV stars, he would always remember that talk and his cousin's unique style.
Travis signed
Tyga to his Bad Squad label and then invited him along when the punk-pop group
Fall Out Boy came calling.
Travis and
Tyga would appear on the remix to
Fall Out Boy's "Arms Race," which also featured
Kanye West,
Paul Wall,
Skinhead Rob,
Lupe Fiasco, and
Lil Wayne. When the remix became a hit,
Tyga found himself performing the track on MTV's Video Music Awards in 2007. He soon entered the studio to do some guest shots for his new friend
Lil Wayne before shifting the focus to his solo career. His first single became the hooky "Coconut Juice," a
S*A*M & Sluggo production that borrowed a bit of
Harry Nilsson's hit "Coconut." As the club track was climbing the charts in the spring of 2008,
Tyga was hard at work on his debut album,
No Introduction, which was officially released that June. He returned in 2012 with Careless World, an album that featured Game, Snoop Dogg, and Drake among its guests.
–
David Jeffries, Rovi