Once again, Tyga has returned to the drama pool. Our favorite former Young Money rapper is back in the headlines again, and this time not for the best reasons. He was arrested on Tuesday for alleged domestic abuse against his ex-girlfriend, Camaryn Swanson, and may now be facing felony charges. The 31-year old rapper has yet to speak out on the allegations, but his rep is adamant that Tyga is innocent. Let’s hope so, because a case like this can be damaging to his career.
Who is Tyga?
Standing at 5 feet 7 inches tall, Tyga has had one hell of a music career for only being 31 years old. Then again, it helped that he got started at a young age. Born Michael Stevenson on Nov. 19, 1989, Tyga was raised in California by Vietnamese-Jamaican parents. During high school, he became inspired to rap after listening to hip hop artists like Eminem, Cam’ron, and Fabulous, which prompted him to start recording and posting his own mixtapes online.
His big break in the industry didn’t come in the form of a random label scout, but rather his cousin, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes.
After hearing Tyga’s mixtape, McCoy signed him to Bat Squad Records and Travis became a part of Gym Class Heroes. He toured with the group and eventually earned himself a feature on Fall Out Boy’s remix of “Arms Race” alongside other notable artists including Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Lil Wayne. After the remix’s commercial success, Tyga left Gym Class Heroes to focus his efforts on building his solo career.
His first single as an established solo artist was the club hit “Coconut Juice” in 2008. He then released his debut studio album, No Introductions, later that same year and the project began to attract the attention of mainstream artists.
Tyga then signed to Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment in 2011 and released his second album, Careless World: Rise of the Last King, in 2012.
The album peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 after the release of the singles “Still Got It” (featuring Drake) and “Rack City.” He later released Hotel California in 2013 and once again made it to the top ten on the Billboard charts.
He later collaborated with Chris Brown on the 2015 mixtape Fan of a Fan. The mixtape became a success thanks to the single “Deuces,” which peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #30 on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs chart. He later followed up with Gold Album: 18th Century before releasing his last project with the Young Money Imprint called the Rawwest N**** Alive in 2016.
After that, Tyga signed to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label and released his next album, BitchImThe Shit2 (a sequel to a previous mixtape in 2011) in 2017. He followed that up with another album, Kyoto, in 2018, which featured a collaboration with Offset from the Migos for the Top Ten Billboard single, “Taste.” Finally, in 2019, Tyga released his seventh album, Legendary, before taking a break to appear on a slew of singles with various artists for the next two years.
In 2021 alone, he’s been featured on the singles “Freak” with Megan Thee Stallion, “Sip It” with Iggy Azalea, and “Splash” with Moneybagg Yo.
During his career, he’s worked with countless artists including Vince Staples, Chief Keef, Young Thug, Pusha T, Blueface, Rick Ross, and 2 Chainz. Though he hasn’t made as big of an impact on hip hop as some of his peers, Tyga has certainly built an impressive resume of work during the last twenty years. Surely he’s rolling in dough, right?
Tyga’s net worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Tyga only has a net worth of $5 million, which is unsurprising since Tyga has never really been considered a big-name artist. Despite his vast resume, he hasn’t sold as many albums as his peers, which means that his pockets are not brimming with money the way Drake’s or Chris Brown’s are. Nevertheless, Tyga continues to live like he does, which has often had an adverse effect on him financially.
In 2014, Tyga owed the State of California $120,000 in unpaid taxes and then owed them $19,000 in 2015. A year later, his G-Wagon was repossessed after the rapper had reportedly not made any payments in months. In fact, Tyga has lost several expensive cars to repossession, including a $200,000 Maybach.
Unlike many of his more well-to-do peers, who purchase million-dollar homes in the Calabasas area, Tyga rents a lot of the mansions that he resides in. Unfortunately, he doesn’t appear to be a very good tenant.
In 2015, he was sued by one of his former landlords for failing to pay $124,000 in back rent. Later that year, he was sued by a different landlord for $50,000 in rent at another Calabasas house.
Tyga’s relationship status
Even though Tyga is not necessarily one of the richest rappers in the world, he’s been linked to some high-profile ladies during his time in the spotlight. According to Capital Xtra, Tyga was even married once in the beginning of his career. Back in 2010, Tyga got married to model Jordan Craig and divorced a year later in 2011. Since then, he’s been romantically linked to various women including Chanel Iman, Sophia Body, Tammy Hembrow, Amina Blue, Bella Poarch, and most recently, Camaryn Swanson.
However, his most famous and perhaps his longest past relationships are with former stripper-turned-social media personality Black Chyna and model girlfriend-turned-mogul Kylie Jenner.
Tyga and Chyna dated in 2011 when the two met for Chyna to star in his “Rack City” music video. A year later, the couple had a son, King Cairo Stevenson, and got engaged in 2012. However, they never moved forward with marriage and broke up two years later in 2014.
That same year, Tyga began dating Kylie Jenner when she was 17, though they waited until she turned 18 to make it official. The couple dated on and off for the next four years until they finally moved on from each other in 2018.
Most recently, Tyga had been dating Camaryn Swanson since February of 2021 and it was rumored that the couple was getting engaged. But now that Swanson has accused the rapper of physically assaulting her, the odds that they are no longer a couple are pretty high at this point. At this time, it’s probably safe to assume that Tyga is single again, and after this debacle, there’s a good chance that he’s probably going to stay that way for a while.
Tyga’s roller coaster life
Tyga may not have had the smoothest career or the most stellar track record when it comes to relationships, but you can’t deny that his life has been nothing short of exciting. Even if he goes broke⏤which, judging by his lifestyle choices and meager fortune, could happen some time soon⏤he’ll certainly have loads of stories to tell about his life and career.
Given the hot water he’s found himself in on multiple occasions, he might want to be careful about how he spills the tea moving forward. Otherwise, he may end up stepping in a pool of it and find himself the only one there to clean it up.