Tyga

Fourteen months after the release of his surprisingly tolerable last album, Careless World, Tyga follows up with Hotel California. The turnaround might have been even quicker if failed attempts to clear a handful of 2Pac samples used for a hodgepodge verse on "Hit 'Em Up" (named after a Pac diss track, but a Tyga original, sort of) didn't slow things down. It's a shame the verse didn't make it through, as it would have been a perfect fit on this ridiculous big-budget train wreck. Lead single "Dope" is a pretty cool flip of Dr. Dre's classic "Deep Cover," but it ultimately crumbles with Tyga's inappropriate implementation of the non-chorus. The trend-chasing "Molly" not only loses points for lacking original subject matter, but its producer unapologetically rips off guest Wiz Khalifa's "Cabin Fever" without giving Lex Luger credit. Continuing in the vein of the banal, many of these songs attempt to recapture Tyga's 2012 hit, "Faded," over and over. One of these reincarnations, "Hijack," features 2 Chainz earning his appearance fee with this campy line: "I got plaques on my wall, you got gingivitis" — this could be considered an album highlight. There are some solid tracks, like "Diss Song" and "Drive Fast, Live Young," which hint at what Tyga can do when he puts a few ideas together. However, his blink-and-miss flashes of aptitude don't do enough to dilute his embarrassing cluelessness.