It’s Tyga’s cool conviction in his flow that makes such poorly-thought lines come off even worse. The album’s closing track “Palm Trees” begins with, “ N*ggas wanna stop me like the Nazis/ Getting money like Illuminati/ Look up and see the palm trees/ Fuck everybody,” which is currently the frontrunner for the dumbest thing said on a rap record in 2013. It’s indicative of what really cripples Hotel California, which is that Tyga’s detached bravado is just not interesting. “It Neva Rains” spoils a lush, glossy soundscape with an overbearing vocoder hook and Tyga trying his hardest to sound #Based, or at least using styles Lil B already perfected and became bored of in 2010, resulting in perhaps the most forgettable song ever written about Los Angeles. It’s largely good-enough material, and Tyga can still write an infectious hook over progressive production, but its Tyga’s shortcomings as a rapper that really torpedo the whole affair. “Molly” is a somewhat interesting but by-the-numbers song about MDMA, “Get Loose” is a catchy retread of “Rack City,” “Show You” is the fun Future song that actually has Future on it, etc. Dre’s “Deep Cover,” and Wiz Khalifa joins him for “M.O.E.,” an unnecessary acronym of “Music Over Everything” that re-imagines Jay-Z’s “Feelin’ It”) he’s piggybacking today’s hottest rap trends. When he’s not putting his spin on rap classics that really didn’t need to be retooled (the Rick Ross-assisted “Dope” is Tyga’s take on Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Sadly, we don’t get the pleasure of finding out what that is because Hotel California has all the focus of a drunk goldfish. For someone whose been able to follow trends and find success riding rap’s current waves, Hotel California sounds like he finds the actual act of rapping a chore to get out of the way before he can do what he really wants to do. But as soon as the track finishes, Tyga rests on his laurels and spends the next 50 minutes just being the same Tyga he was last year. Things start promisingly enough with the Lil Wayne assisted opening track “500 Degrees,” named after Wayne’s third album, which features an invigorated Tyga over a tension-building staccato piano riff before Wayne sweeps through with a verse better than anything on I Am Not a Human Being II. Now 23 years old, Tyga returns with Hotel California, which, if the album’s anything to go by, really isn’t that great of a hotel. The minimalist club banger “Rack City” – sleek, futuristic and sinister - was a far cry from the overtly-gimmicky “Coconut Juice” that introduced a teenage Tyga to the world. His last album, 2012‘s Careless World: Rise of the Last King spawned the double platinum DJ Mustard-produced single “Rack City,” Tyga’s biggest hit to date. While he’s never at any point been a top-level solidified star, he’s managed to change with the times and still produce singles that worm their way into being among the year’s most played. In the years since, he’s remained at Young Money and even garnered a Grammy nomination.
Yes, it’s been a half-decade since his Harry Nilsson-sampling, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes-featured single “Coconut Juice” took the rap world at a creative low-point by storm. Only a select few rap artists have managed to sustain a relevant mainstream career for five years, and now you can add Tyga to that list.
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