Tyga was always a bit of a joke.
The 26-year-old rapper, whose real name, Michael Ray Stevenson, resembles that of a redneck assassin, achieved moderate fame and fortune on the back of his hit single âRack City,â a terribly silly track about making it rain on strippers. Heâs since garnered considerably more ink for his base tabloid exploits, from being sued by a pair of women for exposing their nipples in his music video sans permission, to being sued for things like âjacking $91K worth of grade âAâ blingâ (TMZâs words) and stiffing his landlord (as well as the state of California).
Tyga once even called Drake âfake,â despite the fact that Aubrey Graham has been very upfront about his past, whilst Michael Ray Stevenson, who claims to be from the mean streets of Compton, appeared on a pilot for an MTV reality series called Bu$tas in 2008 saying he grew up ânot too toughâ in The Valley, and his âparents got a Range Rover, CL600 doinâ it big.â He lost that hip-hop competition, by the way, to a nerdy white dude who may or may not have worked at Kinkoâs.
But Tyga, who is half-Vietnamese, is best known for dating the youngest Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, when she was 17 and he was 25âwhich, if you were wondering, qualifies as statutory rape in their home state of California. Kanye West, the husband of Jennerâs sister Kim Kardashian West, went as far as to compliment Tyga on dating someone underage, telling Power 105 back in February, âI think he got in early. I think he was smart.â
And the tabloid media, like West, wasnât as dismissive of this illicit relationship as it should have been. They shrugged when Tyga posted a picture of a 17-year-old Kylie to Instagram with the caption, âCertain things catch your eye, but only few capture the heart.â (People magazine even called the post âsweet.â) They passed the tea when he was allegedly found to have cheated on the teenager with a transsexual actress, who posted the alleged receiptsâincluding a picture of Tygaâs penisâonline. And they turned a blind eye when Tyga released the music video for his statutory-rape anthem âStimulated,â starring Kylie, with vile lyrics like, âThey say she young, I shouldâve waited / She a big girl, dog, when she stimulated.â
But this joke isnât funny anymore.
On Monday afternoon, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred held a press conference featuring her new client, Molly OâMaliaâa 14-year-old Instagram model with close to 50,000 followers on the platform. A pixelated picture of OâMalia had recently been splashed on the cover of OK! magazine, with the rag insinuating that sheâd engaged in an âinappropriate sexually suggestive relationshipâ with the rapper, according to Allred.
Yes, the whole thing seemed like a publicity stunt for Allred and OâMalia, and yes, there shouldnât be 14-year-old âInstagram modelsâ racking up thousands of likes from creepy men for displaying scantily clad photos of themselves, but none of this makes what Tyga allegedly did the least bit acceptable.
According to OâMalia, who lightly wept during the presser, it was the 26-year-old hip-hop artist who initiated the relationship, and it was she who decided to cut off communication when Tyga expressed his desire to meet with her in person.
âThe truth is that Tyga contacted me first. He direct messaged me on Instagram. I knew who he was but I was surprised that he was contacting me,â she said in a statement. âI thought that it could possibly be about my music, but he did not mention that in his initial communication with me. I thought that was strange, but I was thinking he would bring that up in his next message to me. However, he didnât mention it in the next message.
âI began to feel uncomfortable when he asked me to FaceTime with him,â she continued. âHe asked me to FaceTime three times, but I did not do it. Because of my discomfort with why he wanted to communicate with me I quickly stopped responding to him. Itâs crazy how so much can come out of nothing.â
This isnât nothing, however. If true, this shows that Tyga is a predator with considerable means and influence who targets underage girls, just as he did with a teenage Kylie Jenner. And the publicâand tabloid mediaâshouldnât laugh off this despicable behavior any longer. Itâs this lack of seriousness and accountability thatâs allowed a demon like R. Kelly to continue to flourish, despite the countless young girls heâs left violated and forgotten.
OâMalia ended her presser by saying she decided to speak out âbecause I donât want what happened to me to happen to any other young girl.â Neither should the press, or the public.