Artist of the Week: Tyga

Tyga came up in Compton and was weaned on Busta Rhymes. He possesses an old-school spitfire style, a la early LL Cool J, with the pop appeal of Will Smith back when was still a young MC. After opening for Fall Out Boy and Gym Class Heroes — and performing with the latter, Panic At the Disco and Lil Wayne in a guest spot at the 2007 VMAs — an awed Weezy signed the rap rook to his Young Money Entertainment imprint. Barely a year later, No Introduction was born, and now Tyga’s getting hands everywhere up in the air with his breakthrough party anthem, “Coconut Juice,” in addition to flavor-enhanced fresh twists on time-tested themes like young love, money-makin’ abilities, and the epic magnitude of one’s own rap skills (and more millennial topics, like meeting chicks online).

These days, Tyga’s life is a three-ring hip-pop circus of events (”What’s today’s date? I don’t even know the date, we do so much s—” he confessed to the camera on a YouTube video he posted this past Friday) involving appearances, mixes, and remixes with Lil Wayne, Travis McCoy and Pete Wentz, all of whom appeared in his star-studded “Coconut Juice” video. And with the amount of collabos and side hustles he’s dealing in, he’s pretty much in the running to become the next Akon.

The next thing you need to know: he’s got more chains than a bike shop. And finally: he’s got more tats than Sturgis Bike Week.

Watch Tyga step into the boxing rink, and indulge in even more ink, all this week as Artist of the Week, sample his “Coconut Juice” if you somehow haven’t yet, watch Tyga interviews and live performances, and check out exclusive photos from his Artist of the Week shoot.

+ More Tyga photos after the jump:

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