Micheal Ray Nguyen-Stevenson (born November 19, 1989), known professionally by his stage name Tyga (a backronym for Thank you God always), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and television personality. After a number of independent releases, Tyga signed a recording contract with Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records and Republic Records in 2008. His major label debut Careless World: Rise of the Last King was released in 2011 and included the successful singles "Rack City", "Faded" (featuring Lil Wayne), "Far Away" (featuring Chris Richardson), "Still Got It" (featuring Drake), and "Make It Nasty". The album's success was followed up with Hotel California (2013) and Fan of a Fan: The Album (2015), in collaboration with singer Chris Brown.
Due to disagreements with Young Money, Tyga's next album, The Gold Album: 18th Dynasty was released independently on June 23, 2015. The album, executively produced by Kanye West, became his lowest selling album to that point, selling 5,000 album equivalent units in its first week.
After a long period of poor sales and negative reviews from previous material, his May 2018 single, "Taste" (featuring Offset), peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, being his first Top 40 single since "Ayo" with Chris Brown in 2015. The song would later serve as the lead single for his seventh album Legendary, which was eventually released in 2019.