Tyga – $TARFACE Album Review: An AI-Generated Insult to Music
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I have to admit that Tyga’s new album, $TARFACE, is absolutely so special and record-breaking. Why not? It broke the record for earning the first 0.00/10 from Pitchfork in nearly two decades. That’s not enough; even Anthony Fantano called it “NOT MUSIC,” which is a mandatory verdict for this one. Also, this album has only a 1/100 user score on AOTY based on over 4k users rating; that’s a lifetime record. Not gonna lie, you did it, buddy. Well, Tyga released it as an ‘ 80s-inspired persona of his alter ego, Starface, and obviously a complete surrender to the algorithm, but what we’re hearing now is some AI-generated garbage from Suno AI; that’s not only disgraceful but also a death threat to human creativity. I’m giving a hard agree with Fantano because he called it “NOT MUSIC.” Of course it’s not, because nowadays elementary school kids can generate pieces of bullshit music on platforms like Suno, MusicGPT, etc., but we’d never expect heavy use of AI from an artist like Tyga; anyway, sadly, he did that.
On paper, you are calling it a synth-pop revival, but in reality, they are AI-generated burials of 80s synth-pop music. This is not just a welcome to the era of automated music, but also disrespectful to the gorgeous 80s music; you’re making that iconic music genre into a machine, and that sucks. Tyga said that he is heavily inspired by 80s icons like Scarface and Prince, but this AI-generated album is like a heist rather than a tribute to his idols. Instead of honing his craft, he leaned on generative AI to pump out ten tracks of ’80s-flavored filler, leading to a critical bloodbath that has seen the record branded as an ‘insult to music as an art form. Whether this is a brilliant provocation or just a lazy shortcut, one thing is clear: Tyga has successfully started a conversation about the future of AI, even if he had to sacrifice his musical credibility to do it. If AI music ever takes control over human art, we can take this album as the initiation, and I do think that it’s something we should definitely prevent rather than embrace. Because how frustrating music will be without a human soul in it.
Coming to the album, it sounds like a shallow attempt to capture the neon-soaked magic found in projects like Tory Lanez’s Alone At Prom, but where Tory offered a genuine creative vision, Tyga serves up an automated heist of the era. Every single track on this thirty-minute void—from the opener “SPINNIN IN CIRCLES” to the dramatic peak of “DIED 4U”—melts into a generic slurry of glossy synthesizers and drum machines that sound like they were birthed in a server farm rather than a studio. Because Tyga leaned so heavily on platforms like Suno AI for his synths and guitar solos, the album lacks the dynamic peaks and valleys that define great synth-pop; instead, we get a monotonous pastiche where “WHITE GRAINS,” “AFFECTION,” and “LAST FOREVER” all bleed into one another until you can’t tell which prompt-driven ballad you’re even suffering through. Even the lead single “GAVE U RACKS” fails to break the monotony, wrapping rap-adjacent delivery in a reverb-heavy haze that feels more like a tech demo than a song.
It is “smug and complacent,” as Drew Millard noted, sounding like the work of someone who has never actually listened to the music he’s trying to mimic. Sure, a few of these AI-generated hooks might get stuck in your head, but finding a catchy melody in a pile of “literal slop” doesn’t make it art. Embracing these glossy, soulless textures would be a total betrayal of centuries of music culture; it’s an “insult to music as an art form” that replaces human inspiration with a cold, repetitive machine, and that is a precedent we simply cannot afford to set.
Now, Tyga may describe this as a smart way to craft music in the modern era, but bro, using AI in your production isn’t smart; it’s an insult to the entire music production talent. Producers spend weeks, even months, to craft sounds for us, and you are generating that in minutes; that’s not a use of “Tools”; that’s clearly a replacement for human creativity. Thanks to Pitchfork’s Drew Millard for exposing this brutal threat to human music, and thanks to everyone who gave this album a bullshit rating on AOTY. It’s really disgraceful that even Doja Cat called Tyga a “pen**s”. However, I’m quite sure that a bunch of people are still gonna love this album, but out of respect for human music, we should avoid listening to this garbage. AI isn’t a tool for making music; it’s a deadly threat to the producers we admire. Don’t let AI take control over human talent; that’s it.
[Rating: 0/10]
- Favorite Tracks: N/A
- Least Favorite Tracks: (The Entire Tracklist)
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