WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.640 Imagine confessing to something like highly controversial 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:06.379 and then packaging that defense as this upbeat 00:00:06.379 --> 00:00:09.160 summer anthem and just while watching it climb 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:11.140 the billboard charts while the public streams 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:13.140 it by the millions. It's wild. You're basically 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:16.059 taking a massive public relations crisis and 00:00:16.059 --> 00:00:18.179 trying to you know, turn it into club entertainment. 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:20.960 Exactly. So today we're doing a deep dive into 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:24.219 a single primary source, which is a Wikipedia 00:00:24.219 --> 00:00:27.539 article about the 2015 song stimulated by the 00:00:27.539 --> 00:00:31.120 American rapper Tyga. Yeah, and it might sound 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:34.039 like a highly specific pop culture footnote at 00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:37.359 first. glance, right? Like just a rap song from 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:39.840 roughly a decade ago that had its moment in the 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:42.039 news cycle and then kind of faded out. But the 00:00:42.039 --> 00:00:44.420 mission for you, as you listen today, is to see 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:47.859 how analyzing this one seemingly simple pop song 00:00:47.859 --> 00:00:50.740 reveals these, I mean, these massive twisting 00:00:50.740 --> 00:00:53.259 complexities about media consumption. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:56.200 Media consumption, celebrity public relations, 00:00:57.219 --> 00:01:00.649 and retrospective accountability. Yeah. Cool 00:01:00.649 --> 00:01:03.369 to look at how a piece of pop culture acts as 00:01:03.369 --> 00:01:05.989 a literal time capsule, because it captures the 00:01:05.989 --> 00:01:09.030 controversy of 2015, but it also captures how 00:01:09.030 --> 00:01:11.370 a narrative can completely collapse when new 00:01:11.370 --> 00:01:13.909 facts emerge years later. Yeah, this is really 00:01:13.909 --> 00:01:16.590 a case study in how artists attempt to use their 00:01:16.590 --> 00:01:19.609 platforms to directly respond to public scrutiny. 00:01:19.969 --> 00:01:22.030 It's about the machinery of the music industry. 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:25.780 You know, more importantly, how historical context 00:01:25.780 --> 00:01:27.859 can drastically change the meaning of the media 00:01:27.859 --> 00:01:30.340 we just casually consume every day. Well, OK, 00:01:30.340 --> 00:01:31.939 let's unpack this. We have to start with the 00:01:31.939 --> 00:01:33.879 catalyst. Like, why does the song even exist 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:36.239 in the first place? Let's jump back to the cultural 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:39.439 landscape of 2015. Right, 2015. Tyga releases 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:42.060 a mixtape, and the title itself is just this 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:44.439 giant defensive posture. It's called Fouquat, 00:01:44.540 --> 00:01:47.980 they talk about. And Stimulated is the fifth 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:50.519 single pushed from that project. Yeah, and the 00:01:50.519 --> 00:01:52.500 context of that mixtape title is really really 00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:54.939 the key to everything that follows. So 2015, 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:58.640 Tyga was 25 years old. Right. And the previous 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:01.819 year, intense rumors had started swirling about 00:02:01.819 --> 00:02:04.439 a romantic relationship between him and Kylie 00:02:04.439 --> 00:02:07.200 Jenner, who, and this is the crucial part, was 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:09.500 a minor at the time. Right. So the public scrutiny 00:02:09.500 --> 00:02:13.599 is just mounting. And then Tyga publicly confirms 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:16.780 their romantic relationship the very moment she 00:02:16.780 --> 00:02:19.979 turns 18. Which is the... Legal age of consent 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:23.080 in the state of California exact with the absolute 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:26.199 millisecond it became Legally permissible to 00:02:26.199 --> 00:02:29.319 announce they went public and the reaction wasn't 00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:31.680 you know celebration it was intense discomfort. 00:02:31.860 --> 00:02:34.539 Oh, massive negative publicity surrounding this 00:02:34.539 --> 00:02:36.500 age gap. Yeah, people were actively questioning 00:02:36.500 --> 00:02:39.659 the timeline. So Tyga's response to all this 00:02:39.659 --> 00:02:42.659 heat isn't like a notes app apology. He doesn't 00:02:42.659 --> 00:02:44.719 sit down for a tough interview with a journalist 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:46.879 to clear the air. He releases a song. A song, 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:49.219 yeah. And to me, this feels like an attempt to 00:02:49.219 --> 00:02:52.000 hijack the emotional narrative. It's like issuing 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.319 a musical press release mixed with a legal defense. 00:02:54.879 --> 00:02:56.699 Because if you put out a written press release, 00:02:56.800 --> 00:02:59.719 people pick apart the sentences logically, right? 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:01.919 Right, they analyze it. But if you put out a 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:04.419 song with a catchy beat, you're hoping people 00:03:04.419 --> 00:03:07.539 just nod their heads and absorb the defense passively. 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:10.340 Why choose a song to address this rather than 00:03:10.340 --> 00:03:12.439 a traditional statement? Like, what does it say 00:03:12.439 --> 00:03:15.360 about trying to control the narrative? Well, 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:18.319 what's fascinating here is the sheer utility 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:22.710 of music as a PR shield. Yeah. Because when you 00:03:22.710 --> 00:03:25.229 issue a traditional PR statement, you're inviting 00:03:25.229 --> 00:03:27.729 a debate on equal footing. You're acknowledging 00:03:27.729 --> 00:03:29.710 that you owe the public an explanation. Right. 00:03:29.729 --> 00:03:31.250 You're stepping into the courtroom, basically. 00:03:31.490 --> 00:03:35.009 Exactly. But music bypasses that logical critical 00:03:35.009 --> 00:03:37.930 part of the brain and goes straight for an atmospheric 00:03:37.930 --> 00:03:41.490 response. By making his defense a song, Tyga 00:03:41.490 --> 00:03:44.030 is using the medium to simultaneously dismiss 00:03:44.030 --> 00:03:47.180 his critics as just, you know, haters. Which 00:03:47.180 --> 00:03:50.080 fits perfectly into that hip hop bravado archetype. 00:03:50.259 --> 00:03:52.960 Completely. It fits that archetype while aggressively 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:55.060 flaunting the relationship now that Jenner has 00:03:55.060 --> 00:03:58.060 hit that legal age threshold. The subtext of 00:03:58.060 --> 00:04:00.400 releasing a track instead of a statement is essentially, 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:02.979 I'm not on trial, I'm putting on a show. And 00:04:02.979 --> 00:04:04.639 monetizing the controversy while he does it? 00:04:04.659 --> 00:04:07.699 Oh, absolutely. He's framing it as entertainment, 00:04:08.379 --> 00:04:11.509 not an evasion of accountability. Which brings 00:04:11.509 --> 00:04:14.169 us to the actual sound of the song, the content 00:04:14.169 --> 00:04:16.310 of this musical press release. Yeah, this is 00:04:16.310 --> 00:04:18.149 where it gets crazy. Because we have to look 00:04:18.149 --> 00:04:20.310 at the mechanics of how a song like this is put 00:04:20.310 --> 00:04:22.350 together because the irony of the production 00:04:22.350 --> 00:04:24.709 choices is just staggering. You're talking about 00:04:24.709 --> 00:04:27.649 the sample used for the beat. I am. The track 00:04:27.649 --> 00:04:30.350 is produced by someone named Krakow. and they 00:04:30.350 --> 00:04:33.189 decide to build the instrumental around a recognizable 00:04:33.189 --> 00:04:35.930 sample. And the sample they choose to loop in 00:04:35.930 --> 00:04:38.490 the background of a song explicitly defending 00:04:38.490 --> 00:04:41.269 a 25 -year -old's relationship with a newly 18 00:04:41.269 --> 00:04:45.050 -year -old girl is a 1990s electronic track by 00:04:45.050 --> 00:04:47.689 the artist Robert Miles. Right. A track that 00:04:47.689 --> 00:04:50.810 is literally titled Children. Yeah. I mean, the 00:04:50.810 --> 00:04:53.959 sheer audacity of that choice. requires us to 00:04:53.959 --> 00:04:56.839 pause and really think about the studio environment. 00:04:56.860 --> 00:05:00.019 Please. Because in the music industry, clearing 00:05:00.019 --> 00:05:02.899 a sample is a process. It requires lawyers. It 00:05:02.899 --> 00:05:04.920 requires paperwork. It's not just clicking a 00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:07.600 button on a laptop. Exactly. It requires multiple 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:10.000 adults signing off on a creative direction. This 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:12.540 wasn't an accident. See, that's my big question 00:05:12.540 --> 00:05:14.959 here. I look at that production choice, and I 00:05:14.959 --> 00:05:18.360 have to wonder, was this deliberate provocation, 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:21.879 like an arrogant troll of the media? or just 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:24.680 incredible tone deafness by everyone in the room. 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.319 Honestly, it functions as a toxic mix of both. 00:05:28.139 --> 00:05:31.459 On one hand, it could be read as a cheeky, provocative 00:05:31.459 --> 00:05:35.000 nod to the very criticism he's receiving. almost 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.360 mocking the media for treating her like a child. 00:05:37.500 --> 00:05:40.100 Like, oh, you think she's a child. Here's a sample 00:05:40.100 --> 00:05:43.379 called children. Right. But on the other hand, 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:46.939 it shows a complete lack of self -awareness regarding 00:05:46.939 --> 00:05:48.779 how that would actually land with the general 00:05:48.779 --> 00:05:50.980 public. Because he's addressing the criticism 00:05:50.980 --> 00:05:53.360 directly in the lyrics, too. Right, the lyrics. 00:05:53.980 --> 00:05:56.720 He raps, they say she young. I should have waited. 00:05:57.040 --> 00:06:00.759 She a big girl dog when she stimulated. He acknowledges 00:06:00.759 --> 00:06:03.430 the public's timeline. and then immediately dismisses 00:06:03.430 --> 00:06:06.129 the moral concern with a purely sexual justification. 00:06:06.490 --> 00:06:09.009 And the critics did not let that slide. The sources 00:06:09.009 --> 00:06:10.850 we're looking at show that the critical backlash 00:06:10.850 --> 00:06:13.629 to this was swift and it was absolutely brutal. 00:06:13.750 --> 00:06:16.110 Brutal is the right word. The media did not just 00:06:16.110 --> 00:06:18.540 nod along to the beat. Ebony Magazine didn't 00:06:18.540 --> 00:06:21.860 mince words. They dubbed, stimulated, the worst 00:06:21.860 --> 00:06:24.639 song anyone has ever created. Not just that year, 00:06:25.060 --> 00:06:27.560 the worst song ever. Yeah, you also had Vibe 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:30.199 Magazine calling it cringe -worthy, but the most 00:06:30.199 --> 00:06:32.540 piercing analysis actually came from Casey Lewis 00:06:32.540 --> 00:06:35.600 writing for Teen Vogue. Yes, Teen Vogue was all 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:37.779 over this. They really were. She pointed out 00:06:37.779 --> 00:06:41.009 that... Tyga was basically justifying and heavily 00:06:41.009 --> 00:06:43.670 glorifying a relationship with an underage girl 00:06:43.670 --> 00:06:46.089 that had just barely crossed the threshold of 00:06:46.089 --> 00:06:49.550 legality. Like by minutes. Right. The consensus 00:06:49.550 --> 00:06:51.790 among these major publications was that this 00:06:51.790 --> 00:06:54.110 wasn't a love song and it wasn't just a bad rap 00:06:54.110 --> 00:06:57.470 song. It was widely viewed as glorifying statutory 00:06:57.470 --> 00:06:59.829 rape. Teen Vogue specifically noted that the 00:06:59.829 --> 00:07:01.810 lyrics alone would land you a week's worth of 00:07:01.810 --> 00:07:03.689 detention if you said them in a high school hallway. 00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:06.019 But they were pointing to a subtext that was 00:07:06.019 --> 00:07:08.480 much darker than just crude lyrics. They were 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:10.860 calling out the fundamental power dynamic. If 00:07:10.860 --> 00:07:13.339 we connect this to the bigger picture, this critical 00:07:13.339 --> 00:07:16.740 response from 2015 is a prime example of media 00:07:16.740 --> 00:07:19.000 literacy in action. How so? Well, it shows how 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:21.579 journalists and the public can serve as a real 00:07:21.579 --> 00:07:24.420 -time moral barometer against celebrity spin. 00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:28.920 Tyga's PR strategy relied on packaging this narrative 00:07:28.920 --> 00:07:31.639 in a slick, professionally -produced hip -hop 00:07:31.639 --> 00:07:34.220 track, expecting the culture's love of celebrity 00:07:34.220 --> 00:07:36.759 spectacle to outweigh its moral compass. Right, 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.319 just dazzle them with the beat. Exactly. But 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:41.500 the critics refused to engage with it purely 00:07:41.500 --> 00:07:44.000 as a piece of music. They engaged with it as 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.399 a moral document. They essentially rejected the 00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:48.439 reality he was trying to construct. But, you 00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:50.800 know, artists at that level rarely just fold 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.060 when their reviews are bad. Ever. The critical 00:07:53.060 --> 00:07:55.319 reception is terrible. The public is visibly 00:07:55.319 --> 00:07:57.759 grossed out, so the strategy has to pivot. If 00:07:57.759 --> 00:07:59.740 the audio defense isn't working, he has to make 00:07:59.740 --> 00:08:01.920 them look at a visual defense. The music video. 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:04.680 Exactly. We move from what is said in the lyrics 00:08:04.680 --> 00:08:06.980 to what is shown on screen. Two weeks later, 00:08:07.139 --> 00:08:09.600 on August 31, 2015, the official music video 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:11.740 drops. And this is where the visual narrative 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:14.680 attempts to legitimize the relationship in a 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:17.379 way the audio completely failed to do. The music 00:08:17.379 --> 00:08:19.879 video is just a fascinating piece of visual PR. 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:22.920 Because seeing is supposedly believing, right? 00:08:23.160 --> 00:08:26.000 The video opens in this gorgeous, sprawling, 00:08:26.060 --> 00:08:29.079 oceanside mansion. You've got Tyga sitting on 00:08:29.079 --> 00:08:31.420 a couch, pen in hand, writing lyrics on a piece 00:08:31.420 --> 00:08:35.360 of paper. He is heavily playing the role of the 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:38.200 serious, contemplative, established artist. Right. 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:40.679 Very mature. But the arrival of Kylie Jenner 00:08:40.679 --> 00:08:44.200 is what is so heavily and intentionally stylized. 00:08:44.539 --> 00:08:46.639 We really have to look closely at the wardrobe 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:49.240 choices here, because in a music video, styling 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:51.820 is communication. It's a visual language. Oh, 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:54.679 it is a relentless barrage of luxury signaling. 00:08:55.240 --> 00:08:57.279 Yes. She pulls up in a bright green Bentley. 00:08:57.360 --> 00:08:59.340 She's wearing a green bomber jacket, a white 00:08:59.340 --> 00:09:02.220 top, ripped jeans. But then look at the hyper 00:09:02.220 --> 00:09:04.419 -specific accessories the styling team put on 00:09:04.419 --> 00:09:06.940 her. It's also calculated. Pink Christian Louboutin 00:09:06.940 --> 00:09:10.279 heels, a Birkin bag, a gold watch, heavy jewelry. 00:09:10.580 --> 00:09:12.600 And then later in the video, she actually changes 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:14.690 into this very structured blue jumpsuit with 00:09:14.690 --> 00:09:17.649 a textured coat. And every single one of those 00:09:17.649 --> 00:09:21.009 items is a deliberate choice by a styling team 00:09:21.009 --> 00:09:24.470 designed to scream established adult. You don't 00:09:24.470 --> 00:09:27.090 put a teenager in a Birkin bag and Louboutins 00:09:27.090 --> 00:09:31.309 unless you are trying to project a specific aura 00:09:31.309 --> 00:09:33.909 of maturity and wealth. And here's where it gets 00:09:33.909 --> 00:09:36.730 really interesting to me. A Birkin bag, Louboutins, 00:09:37.049 --> 00:09:38.909 a Bentley. These aren't just expensive items. 00:09:39.309 --> 00:09:42.980 They're signifiers of mature adult wealth. They 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:45.600 feel like props in a play about adulthood. That's 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:47.600 exactly what they are. It honestly feels like 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.399 a kid wearing their parents' oversized business 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:53.120 suit to look grown up for a presentation. Because 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:55.519 despite all these adult props aggressively trying 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:57.419 to sell the idea that she is a mature woman, 00:09:57.779 --> 00:09:59.919 how do they actually interact in the video? Well, 00:09:59.980 --> 00:10:02.220 they meet on a balcony, they kiss, and then... 00:10:02.220 --> 00:10:04.740 He gives her a piggyback ride. A piggyback ride. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:08.320 The tension between these aggressive adult symbols 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:11.120 of extreme wealth and the profoundly childish 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:14.460 playground act of a piggyback ride is staggering. 00:10:14.580 --> 00:10:17.779 It really is. It completely undermines the she's 00:10:17.779 --> 00:10:20.850 a big girl defense from the lyrics. The visual 00:10:20.850 --> 00:10:23.309 of a 25 -year -old giving an 18 -year -old a 00:10:23.309 --> 00:10:26.129 piggyback ride while she holds a Birkin bag just 00:10:26.129 --> 00:10:28.950 accidentally broadcasts the exact immaturity 00:10:28.950 --> 00:10:31.509 the video was trying to hide. It visually highlights 00:10:31.509 --> 00:10:34.110 the exact power dynamic and age gap that people 00:10:34.110 --> 00:10:37.159 were criticizing. It's a fascinating failure 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:39.799 of visual PR. Truly. But what is equally telling 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:42.179 about this music video isn't just what happens 00:10:42.179 --> 00:10:44.580 in it, but its lifespan. Right. Because it was 00:10:44.580 --> 00:10:47.480 heavily promoted and released on YouTube in 2015. 00:10:47.960 --> 00:10:51.059 But by 2018, it was quietly deleted from his 00:10:51.059 --> 00:10:53.740 official channel. Scrubbing it from YouTube three 00:10:53.740 --> 00:10:56.759 years later feels like a panicked PR move. It's 00:10:56.759 --> 00:10:59.100 almost like the label or his management realized 00:10:59.100 --> 00:11:01.659 the video was basically video evidence of a highly 00:11:01.659 --> 00:11:04.240 problematic era, right? It speaks entirely to 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:06.720 how digital footprints are managed when public 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:08.919 sentiment or personal brands start to evolve. 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:12.519 By 2018, the relationship was over. Right. Both 00:11:12.519 --> 00:11:15.080 of their careers had moved into very different, 00:11:15.419 --> 00:11:17.980 highly lucrative phases. Attempting to scrub 00:11:17.980 --> 00:11:20.399 this video from the internet, is an act of historical 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:23.399 revisionism. It's a PR team, realizing that a 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:26.220 primary source they spent money to create is 00:11:26.220 --> 00:11:29.360 actually a massive liability to future endorsements 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:32.620 and public image. It forces you to think about 00:11:32.620 --> 00:11:35.379 what it means when an artist tries to unpublish 00:11:35.379 --> 00:11:37.559 their own defense. They're literally trying to 00:11:37.559 --> 00:11:39.919 edit the public record. But as we know, the internet 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:42.960 is written in ink. Always. Even if the official 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:45.659 video is pulled, the data, the metadata, and 00:11:45.659 --> 00:11:48.659 the charts remain. Because here is the uncomfortable 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:52.539 truth about 2015. Despite the terrible reviews, 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:55.059 despite the disturbing subtext that Teen Vogue 00:11:55.059 --> 00:11:57.820 called out, the song was commercially successful. 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:00.320 It really was. It peaked at number three on the 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:02.759 US Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart, which means 00:12:02.759 --> 00:12:04.600 it was bubbling right below the main Billboard 00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:07.500 chart, showing massive consumer interest. And 00:12:07.500 --> 00:12:10.700 it hit number 41 on the Hot R &B Hip -Hop Songs 00:12:10.700 --> 00:12:13.059 chart. Millions of people did consume it. Which 00:12:13.059 --> 00:12:15.179 tells us a lot about the mechanics of controversy 00:12:15.179 --> 00:12:18.019 in the streaming era. Controversy generates clicks. 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:21.720 Morbid curiosity drives streams. The chart's 00:12:21.720 --> 00:12:24.000 success doesn't validate the morality of the 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:26.700 song. It just proves the sheer efficiency of 00:12:26.700 --> 00:12:29.559 the spectacle. The music industry machinery worked 00:12:29.559 --> 00:12:32.019 exactly as designed, turning public discomfort 00:12:32.019 --> 00:12:35.159 into chart data. OK, so that is the 2015 time 00:12:35.159 --> 00:12:37.700 capsule. We have the defensive song, the ironic 00:12:37.700 --> 00:12:40.960 sample, the luxury prop music video, the critical 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:43.879 backlash, and the eventual deletion. Yeah. If 00:12:43.879 --> 00:12:46.679 the story ended there, it would just be an uncomfortable, 00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:49.460 slightly gross footnote in pop culture history. 00:12:49.919 --> 00:12:52.379 A 25 -year -old waiting by the clock for a girl 00:12:52.379 --> 00:12:55.100 to turn 18, heavily criticized, but technically 00:12:55.100 --> 00:12:57.000 legally sound of the state of California. But 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:00.039 the story doesn't end in 2015. And the Wikipedia 00:13:00.039 --> 00:13:02.279 article doesn't end there either. No, it doesn't. 00:13:02.330 --> 00:13:04.350 We arrive at the crucial twist in the source 00:13:04.350 --> 00:13:08.070 material. We move from 2015 to the year 2024. 00:13:08.669 --> 00:13:11.049 Nine years later, new information drops that 00:13:11.049 --> 00:13:13.190 completely reframes every single thing we just 00:13:13.190 --> 00:13:15.330 analyzed about that song and that PR strategy. 00:13:15.710 --> 00:13:18.690 The 2024 bombshell. And the source of this new 00:13:18.690 --> 00:13:21.769 information is what makes it so undeniably significant. 00:13:22.210 --> 00:13:23.830 We aren't talking about Internet rumors here. 00:13:24.289 --> 00:13:26.129 No, it didn't come from a tabloid. It didn't 00:13:26.129 --> 00:13:29.129 come from an anonymous rival rapper trying to 00:13:29.129 --> 00:13:32.370 start a feud. The confirmations came from Tyga's 00:13:32.370 --> 00:13:35.269 own inner circle. His own team. Specifically, 00:13:35.450 --> 00:13:38.269 his longtime manager and co -founder of his own 00:13:38.269 --> 00:13:41.490 label, Last Kings, a man named Terrell Meeks. 00:13:41.970 --> 00:13:44.169 And he was joined by other close associates, 00:13:44.629 --> 00:13:47.870 Heather Sanders and a TDE affiliate named Smack. 00:13:48.110 --> 00:13:49.929 We really have to emphasize who these people 00:13:49.929 --> 00:13:51.980 are. These are the people who were in the room. 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:54.200 They were the architects of the infrastructure 00:13:54.200 --> 00:13:56.919 around Tyga during that specific era. Banner 00:13:56.919 --> 00:13:58.879 Circle. Exactly. They managed the schedules, 00:13:59.019 --> 00:14:01.320 the tours, the logistics. And what they revealed 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:04.139 on the record is staggering. They confirmed that 00:14:04.139 --> 00:14:06.559 the relationship absolutely did not begin in 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:09.299 2014 when she was 16, which was what the public 00:14:09.299 --> 00:14:12.059 had largely suspected. According to his own management, 00:14:12.460 --> 00:14:14.559 Tyga began seeing Kylie Jenner when she was 14 00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:17.820 years old. He was 21. Let that sink in based 00:14:17.820 --> 00:14:20.039 on the lyrical analysis we just did of Stimulated. 00:14:20.379 --> 00:14:22.879 Yeah. The entire public premise of the song, 00:14:23.500 --> 00:14:26.820 the core thesis of his musical defense was, I 00:14:26.820 --> 00:14:31.259 waited until she was 18. The 2024 revelations 00:14:31.259 --> 00:14:33.139 prove that the foundational claim of the song 00:14:33.139 --> 00:14:35.700 was entirely fabricated. But it gets so much 00:14:35.700 --> 00:14:37.480 darker when you look at the mechanics of how 00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:40.580 they pulled this off. Yeah, this part is, it's 00:14:40.580 --> 00:14:42.460 really tough to hear. Terrell Meeks and Smack 00:14:42.460 --> 00:14:45.240 didn't just confirm the ages, they confirmed 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:47.799 the logistics of how the entourage maintained 00:14:47.799 --> 00:14:51.049 this relationship. When Kylie turned 16, they 00:14:51.049 --> 00:14:53.110 admitted that they would specifically book flights 00:14:53.110 --> 00:14:55.389 to foreign countries, places like Europe or the 00:14:55.389 --> 00:14:58.129 Caribbean, where the age of consent was 16 or 00:14:58.129 --> 00:15:00.990 lower, just so Tyga could legally have sexual 00:15:00.990 --> 00:15:03.210 relations with her. The level of calculation 00:15:03.210 --> 00:15:05.909 required to execute that is chilling. You have 00:15:05.909 --> 00:15:08.049 to think about the machinery of a celebrity entourage. 00:15:08.450 --> 00:15:10.370 You have a team of adults managers, assistants, 00:15:10.629 --> 00:15:13.190 label executives looking at a map of international 00:15:13.190 --> 00:15:15.470 consent laws to find a geographical loophole. 00:15:15.850 --> 00:15:18.090 They're booking international flights, organizing 00:15:18.090 --> 00:15:20.590 passports, and managing the travel of a minor, 00:15:21.190 --> 00:15:24.429 all to bypass statutory laws that make this behavior 00:15:24.429 --> 00:15:27.230 a felony in their home state of California. So 00:15:27.230 --> 00:15:29.769 what does this all mean? We look back at that 00:15:29.769 --> 00:15:32.809 2015 song, that musical press release with the 00:15:32.809 --> 00:15:35.909 Robert Miles sample and the Birkin bags. It wasn't 00:15:35.909 --> 00:15:38.509 just a gross defense of a legal age gap. It was 00:15:38.509 --> 00:15:41.789 a highly produced, charted, monetized cover -up 00:15:41.789 --> 00:15:44.690 of a crime. It was a decoy. This raises an important 00:15:44.690 --> 00:15:47.509 question for anyone consuming media today. What 00:15:47.509 --> 00:15:50.190 is the difference between being technically legal 00:15:50.190 --> 00:15:53.370 via international loopholes and the ethical reality 00:15:53.370 --> 00:15:55.289 of a situation? That's the core of it. Right. 00:15:55.870 --> 00:15:59.470 In 2015, Tyga's entire PR defense rested on the 00:15:59.470 --> 00:16:01.970 technical legality of her 18th birthday in California. 00:16:02.379 --> 00:16:05.940 But the 2024 revelations from his own team shatter 00:16:05.940 --> 00:16:08.980 that technicality. It reveals an organized, well 00:16:08.980 --> 00:16:11.559 -funded evasion of the law facilitated by an 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:13.980 entire industry infrastructure. It completely 00:16:13.980 --> 00:16:16.480 vindicates the critics from 2015, too. Completely. 00:16:16.779 --> 00:16:18.860 Casey Lewis at Teen Vogue, who wrote about the 00:16:18.860 --> 00:16:21.220 unsettling subtext, wasn't just being a prudish 00:16:21.220 --> 00:16:23.820 critic complaining about crude rap lyrics. She 00:16:23.820 --> 00:16:25.580 and the other critics were intuitively picking 00:16:25.580 --> 00:16:27.759 up on a dark reality that wouldn't be factually 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:29.980 confirmed for almost a decade. They felt the 00:16:29.980 --> 00:16:32.559 lie in the music. Absolutely. The critics saw 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:35.299 the truth through the fog of luxury cars, expensive 00:16:35.299 --> 00:16:38.179 styling, and catchy beats. They recognized that 00:16:38.179 --> 00:16:40.259 the props in that music video were a distraction. 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:44.419 The 2024 revelations proved that the real -time 00:16:44.419 --> 00:16:46.779 moral barometer of the public was incredibly 00:16:46.779 --> 00:16:49.320 accurate, even when the artist was spending millions 00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:51.789 of dollars to tell them they were wrong. So, 00:16:51.990 --> 00:16:53.450 to bring this all together for you listening, 00:16:53.850 --> 00:16:56.450 we started with a Wikipedia page about a poorly 00:16:56.450 --> 00:16:59.250 received, somewhat forgotten rap song from 2015. 00:16:59.950 --> 00:17:01.929 But look at the incredible journey this single 00:17:01.929 --> 00:17:04.109 piece of media took us on. It showed us how artists 00:17:04.109 --> 00:17:06.569 try to use art and music as a literal shield 00:17:06.569 --> 00:17:08.950 against accountability. It showed us the intense 00:17:08.950 --> 00:17:11.470 tension between visual markers of wealth and 00:17:11.470 --> 00:17:14.190 actual human maturity. And most importantly, 00:17:14.690 --> 00:17:16.690 it showed us how the truth can take nearly a 00:17:16.690 --> 00:17:19.289 decade to finally catch up to the PR spin. It 00:17:19.289 --> 00:17:21.589 proves why we have to constantly look critically 00:17:21.589 --> 00:17:24.690 at the media we are handed. The narrative you 00:17:24.690 --> 00:17:27.230 are being sold, even if it has a great beat, 00:17:27.829 --> 00:17:29.930 even if it has a multi -million dollar music 00:17:29.930 --> 00:17:33.230 video featuring mansions by the ocean, and even 00:17:33.230 --> 00:17:35.630 if it charts on billboard, might just be a highly 00:17:35.630 --> 00:17:38.589 coordinated smoke screen designed by a team of 00:17:38.589 --> 00:17:41.109 professionals to hide something entirely different. 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:43.900 You can never just take the pop culture spectacle 00:17:43.900 --> 00:17:46.500 at face value. You always have to ask what kind 00:17:46.500 --> 00:17:48.759 of logistics and machinery are operating just 00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:51.019 out of frame. And if you want one final thought 00:17:51.019 --> 00:17:54.079 to mull over regarding how the internet eventually 00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:57.099 catalogs the truth, if you scroll to the absolute 00:17:57.099 --> 00:17:59.359 bottom of that Wikipedia page for Stimulated, 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:02.460 a song that successfully charted, a song that 00:18:02.460 --> 00:18:04.940 had a highly produced video on YouTube, a song 00:18:04.940 --> 00:18:07.140 packaged, marketed, and sold as mainstream pop 00:18:07.140 --> 00:18:10.390 entertainment, You will find the metadata categories 00:18:10.390 --> 00:18:13.210 that Wikipedia editors use to organize the site's 00:18:13.210 --> 00:18:15.809 information. Right. And quietly, right there 00:18:15.809 --> 00:18:18.289 at the very bottom, after all the chart data 00:18:18.289 --> 00:18:20.890 and production credits, the song is retroactively 00:18:20.890 --> 00:18:24.410 filed under a very specific category, Songs About 00:18:24.410 --> 00:18:28.930 Pedophilia. Wow. That is a chilling reclassification. 00:18:29.069 --> 00:18:32.029 It really is. What does it say about our culture 00:18:32.029 --> 00:18:34.400 and the machinery of the music industry? that 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:36.700 a piece of content, now permanently categorized 00:18:36.700 --> 00:18:40.180 that way, was once casually consumed, streamed, 00:18:40.220 --> 00:18:43.440 and defended as just another summer single. It's 00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:45.339 something to deeply consider the next time a 00:18:45.339 --> 00:18:47.720 controversial pop culture moment tries to aggressively 00:18:47.720 --> 00:18:48.779 tell you its own story.