Tyga – Careless World: Rise Of The Last King Album Review

Post by Colton S., Feb 20, 2012 at 8:02 pm Speak Up22

Before I get into this review of Tyga’s Careless World: Rise Of The Last King album, I feel like I need to add in a quick disclaimer first.  I’m a hip-hop head, pure and simple. I quit listening to pop music a long time ago.  I don’t hate it, by any means (as long as it’s well done).  But, it’s definitely not what I choose to listen to unless I’m partying with a large group of people, and trying to keep the energy levels high.

With that said, Tyga’s studio debut, Careless World: Rise Of The Last King, is NOT the type of music I would typically choose to devote my time to.

While it tries hard to emulate a lot of what’s going on in the modern hip-hop world, from start to finish, it’s much closer to pop than anything else.  I wouldn’t exactly call it “bubblegum”…but its flashy overproduction, along with its borderline childish and mostly reality-free lyrical content, combine to make this too far removed from hip-hops root’s to truly consider it part of the genre.

However, as a critic, I must do my best to be as objective as possible.  So, let’s break the album down to its basic parts, while I try and make sense of what it really has going on.

Lyrically, outside of a few features (most notably those from Wale, Nas, and J. Cole), there is absolutely nothing here that we haven’t seen or heard at least fifty times before from the rest of YMCMB’s roster over the past few years.  The actual words might have been rearranged slightly, but every single piece of lyrical content has been done to death already.

Tyga even does a split personality shtick like Drake (minus the singing, of course) throughout the album.  Sometimes he tries to be emotional and sweet for the ladies, and at other times, he not so convincingly tries to get his listeners to think that he’s got a “street” streak in him too.  While I guess it would be arguable that he’s trying to show his personal complexity, I highly doubt that’s the case here.

When Tyga is trying to “go hard”, you get three things.  Money, haters, bitches…toss in a few synonyms and some questionably witty wordplay…then put it in a punch line format.  There’s the formula, that’s all you get.

Heart felt lyricism talking about his life’s struggles? Nah.

Politically charged aggression? Nope.

Anything that might be halfway relatable to anyone that actually lives on planet Earth? Not a chance.

Fun?  Sure, occasionally.

I’ll even give credit where credit is due, and say that “Rack City” might be one of the best club records of 2012.  It’s mentally vacant, its bass line is one of the best in recent memory, and it’s impossible not to move to it.  Unfortunately, it’s probably the only song on the album that truly accomplishes its intended goal.

“Faded” (ft. Lil Wayne) could probably contend for worst song of the year, and it might officially mark the exact moment where Weezy’s career officially jumped the proverbial shark.  Artistically, he’s been on a steady decline for a few years (though I’ll tip my cap to the fact that his revenue probably hasn’t), but this track seems like it was made by a couple of “rappers” smoking blunts in a frat house.  Wayne’s joke of a line about the scent of his thumb, after putting it in a young ladies backside, was enough to make even the freakiest music fan cringe with it’s bad taste.

When Tyga tries to let his sweet side show, it comes off painfully immature and idealistic.  “Far Away” feels like break up poetry written by a middle school student, complete with hearts to dots the “I’s”.  The writing on the other tracks that fall into this category feel like they were made of material Drake turned down.  The vocal filters used on them, which eerily make TYGA sound like Drizzy himself, only add to the illusion.

Production wise, this one’s all over the place, and exactly what you’d expect from a pop-inspired Young Money project.  Its gimmicky and genre-bending.  I’ll hand it to whoever engineered this one and did the mixing though, it’s impeccably done and as pro as it comes.

However, the beat selection goes from wanna-be EDM to straight pop.  There’s very little traditional hip-hop here, from a musical standpoint, which is probably most responsible for making this one feel nothing like a true hip-hop project.  Objectively speaking, I could totally understand how some fans could really get down with it though.

Overall, I’d highly recommend this to a certain type of listener.  If you’re a die-hard fan of the modern day Young Money, in middle school, or your favorite radio station uses the tag “KISS”…you’ll probably love it (though some might argue that those 3 things are one in the same).

If you’re a hip-hop fan, don’t even bother. Unless ,of course, you really want to pay for the whole album just to get wild to “Rack City” when the moment calls for it.  It’s well produced and somewhat catchy music, but it really has nothing to offer from an artistic or intellectual standpoint.