Tyga delivers charismatic, lively show

Los Angeles’ own Young Money rapper Tyga performed for a sold-out crowd at Club Nokia at L.A. Live on Sunday night, bringing more than enough energy to keep his hometown fans — including some who waited as much as two hours in line for the show — excited.

Tyga’s “Careless World Tour” — named for his latest album Careless World: Rise of the Last King — is making stops in 41 cities across the U.S., and the L.A. show was hotly anticipated. Though Tyga’s homecoming had fans anxious and ready, the biggest surprise for the crowd, however, might have happened before Tyga even touched the stage.

There were several opening acts for this particular show. The opening artists, who performed between two to six songs, included hip-hop young guns YG, Joe Moses, Kid Ink and Lil Twist, another member of Young Money.

Most notably, during one of Lil Twist’s songs (which was not receiving a particularly great reaction from the crowd), everyone jumped up to their feet, screaming in awe.

Justin Bieber, one of Lil Twist’s good friends, who happened to be in town to attend the Kids’ Choice Awards at the Galen Center, had just run onto the stage to help hype up the crowd during the song. Though he didn’t do much other than run across the stage saying things like “let’s go” and “yeah” for a little less than a minute, it definitely caught everyone’s attention.

Once Bieber fever cooled down and all the openers finished, Tyga finally took the stage decked out in a fur jacket, shirt and hat flaunting his brand, Last Kings. Backed by large lighted letters spelling out his name and fog machines galore, Tyga came out blazing, quickly jumping into his extensive song catalog; having released five mixtapes and a full-length album since 2010, the selection of songs was pretty deep.

His first few songs consisted of mixtape hits like “B-tch I’m The Sh-t,” “I’m So Raw” and his freestyle to Cali Swag District’s “Teach Me How To Dougie,” along with a single from the compilation album We Are Young Money titled “Roger That.”

About a quarter of the way through the show, he brought out opening act YG again, this time to join him for two songs. YG’s presence along with Tyga’s on the stage got the crowd going. Tyga followed this up by slowing down the pace, working in songs from his newest album and including a sincere performance of “I’m Gone” and eliciting a very positive crowd response with the song “Muthaf-cka Up.”

Finishing his Careless World album songs, Tyga pumped up the crowd by bringing out a new artist on his Last Kings label: female rapper Honey Cocaine. The duo excelled on its song “Heisman,” and Honey Cocaine performed well enough on her solo song to keep fans intrigued, even though many probably had not been exposed to her music yet.

Surprisingly, the most entertaining and impressive part of the night was not saved for last.

The highlight came when Tyga performed three hit songs one after another: “Faded,” “The Motto” and “Rack City.” The crowd knew almost every word, singing and rapping the lyrics as loud as possible, and Tyga was physically and vocally more energized during those songs.

Tyga also showed off his humorous side, commenting after performing “BedRock” that he usually has girls throwing their bras onstage at this point. His words almost immediately prompted three or four girls to do so, and Tyga went even further, flirtatiously singling out a tan-colored bra for its robust size.

Fan interaction was a heavy aspect of the concert, and Tyga kept that theme for his final songs, following up “Deuces” and “Far Away” with an encore of the smash hit “Rack City” that also featured about 10 girls onstage with him — a fitting ending to a strong showing.

The concert proved that Tyga’s performance skills are very good, but having such a huge repertoire might actually have hurt the young rapper’s ability to put on a great show: With so many songs and only few that stand out as popular or well-known, fans coming to the show might not really know what to expect.

Despite this, Tyga kept the energy up throughout and played to the crowd, warmly stopping to tell the crowd how much he loves and appreciates the fan support from his hometown. Considering that the audience had a great time, there’s no doubt that Tyga will always be welcome in Los Angeles.