“If I do a show, 50 percent of the crowd on the west coast is Mexican,” Tyga said in the interview. “If they’re hurt, I’m hurt”
By
TOMÁS MIER
Tyga outside Lanvin on October 03, 2021 in Paris, France.
Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images
Tyga has learned his lesson: racism isn’t funny. On Thursday, the rapper went on Power 106 to apologize for the racist stereotype-filled “Ay Caramba” video after facing backlash from Latinos, specifically Mexicans, about the stereotypes portrayed in it. The video has also since been removed from YouTube.
“I had no intentions to offend anybody,” Tyga said in a candid interview with American Cholo, who heavily criticized the rapper and encouraged violence against him on his own YouTube.
“If people are offended, I really apologize,” he added. “If I do a show, 50 percent of the crowd on the west coast is Mexican. If they’re hurt, I’m hurt.”
Tyga said he was overseas when the video came out and when the backlash started rolling in, so he wasn’t able to address the pushback immediately.
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“I started seeing a lot of people offended on it, and I was kind of confused, so that’s why I didn’t respond,” he said. “I tried to do my research a little bit and tried to ask a lot of my friends that I grew up with that are Mexican… I was really kind of confused why are people offended because I’ve always done Latin records.”
Tyga referred to his song “Go Loko” with YG and how with it, he wanted to “pay homage” to the Mexican friends he “grew up with” in that video. This time, things were different.
“I’m not Mexican, so I can’t say what Mexicans are offended by and not, but I had no intention of offending anybody,” Tyga said. “I want to apologize to the Mexican community and my fans who are Mexicans.”
Tyga claimed to understand that the term “Ay caramba” isn’t “even Mexican” and added that his character, named “Gordo” or fatty, “wasn’t even Mexican” either, saying he was instead inspired by Eddie Murphy’s Nutty Professor character.
“It was never my intention that this character is a fat Mexican character. That’s why I was confused,” Tyga said, later adding, “It was meant to be a funny video but not meant to make fun of Mexican culture.”
Tyga released the music video for “Ay Caramba” in early July. It followed the rapper, in a fat suit, eating chips and guacamole while watching a dance competition show. In it, he even used a fake Chicano accent and was seen wearing a matador suit.
American Cholo, who accepted Tyga’s apology on Power 106, had said in a reaction video: “Imagine for a second, a white guy doing this to an African-American, or doing this song… They would be in the streets screaming. Fuck that, fuck Tyga.”
From the Mexican writer who criticized Tyga in a previous story: apology accepted. Let’s not let this happen again.
