Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Tyga Says $tarface Uses AI as a Tool, Not the Whole Album, and Fires Back at Doja Cat
Tyga says $tarface uses AI for production textures, not vocals, and responds to Doja Cat calling him out.
AI has become the newest fault line in rap, and Tyga is now in the conversation after talking openly about how he made his 1980s-inspired alter ego album, $tarface. The project had already stirred debate over how much of it was machine-made. On Thursday, Aug. 13, he tried to draw a cleaner line around what he actually used.
Speaking to TMZ, Tyga said, “What I said was, I used AI-assisted things in the production. All the vocals are me. I wrote all the songs. When it comes to the 80s synths and some of the guitar solos, yes, I used AI for that.”
That clarification follows a week of scrutiny around the album, which Tyga described as a concept project rather than a straight-up AI experiment. He also addressed Doja Cat, who recently called him a penis over the album’s use of AI.
“I love Doja, but she made a demonic album,” he said.
Elsewhere, Tyga had already laid out his thinking in a conversation with Vibe last week, where he framed the technology as part of the process rather than the point of the record.
“I’ve never spoken on this with anybody because I always felt like it’s similar to a magician explaining how he does his tricks. Like why are people overexplaining how they make sh*t that’s good? If you like it, you like it; if you don’t, you don’t. I don’t care. It’s supposed to give you an experience and a feeling. But we definitely used AI as a [tool]. And I know people are going to be mad about me saying this, but it’s where technology is going. It’s no different than when Auto-Tune came out. Some people were opposed to it, but real artists took it and used it.”
Tyga’s comments land in a moment when artists are still trying to define the line between assistance and authorship. On $tarface, he’s saying the writing and vocals stay his, while the AI piece sits mostly with textures and instrumental flourishes. That may not settle the argument, but it does make his position clearer than the headlines around the album suggested.
