Tyga, Doja Cat’s Clash Over AI Albums Sparks Debate on What Counts as ‘Real’ Music

Tyga isn’t hiding his use of AI. In fact, he’s defending it. The rapper says he used the technology to help make parts of his new album, “$tarface,” but insists the music is still his. Not everyone agrees—including Doja Cat.

With the release of his latest album, “$tarface,” the West Coast rapper joins a growing list of musicians embracing artificial intelligence. But while he’s facing backlash from many folks online because of it, it’s Doja Cat’s remarks that stand out among the rest.

The disagreement spilled online when Doja aimed at Tyga over the album during a recent livestream. “Nobody asked me anything about Tyga, but I felt like saying this,” she said. “Tyga is a penis for making an AI album.”

The two have collaborated on a few songs together, including their hit 2016 “Juicy.” So when Tyga was asked to respond to her diss, he clarified that he still has love for Doja, but she might have her own problems to worry about.

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“Listen, I love Doja, but she made a demonic album,” he told TMZ Live. “But I still love her.”

For a moment, it looked like a familiar celebrity spat. But the exchange points to something bigger happening in music: Artists are increasingly being forced to explain not just what they create, but which parts of the creative process they’re willing to hand over to a machine.

Tyga says he knows exactly where his line is.

While making “$tarface,” he has been open about using AI to help create some of the album’s sounds, including ’80s-inspired synthesizers and guitar parts. But he says the songs themselves came from him. He wrote them. He performed the vocals. The technology, in his telling, simply helped him get the sound he wanted.

“It’s supposed to give you an experience and a feeling. But we definitely used AI as a [tool],” the “Rack City” rapper told VIBE. “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 AutoTune came out. Some people were opposed to it, but real artists took it and used it.”

To his credit, there’s a huge difference between asking AI to generate a guitar part and asking it to write and perform an entire song. Yet both can quickly become part of the same argument about whether music made with AI is authentic.

Tyga has embraced that comparison. He has likened the criticism of AI to the backlash against AutoTune, another technology that was once treated as a threat to traditional music before becoming a standard part of modern production. Back then, artists like T-Pain were criticized by some of music’s biggest names, including Jay-Z, for using AutoTune. Years later, the pitch-changing tool is now a staple in music production.

Still, Doja Cat’s reaction shows that the conversation over AI hasn’t settled just yet. And because she and Tyga have collaborated before, her criticism feels less like a random internet complaint and more like a disagreement between two artists who have actually shared a studio.

The criticism has also followed “$tarface” beyond social media. Pitchfork gave the album a 0.0 rating, while Tyga has continued pushing ahead, announcing September performances in Los Angeles and Brooklyn.

That makes the controversy more than a fight over one album. Tyga is effectively asking listeners to accept a new version of the creative process: one where a human artist can use AI without surrendering ownership of the work.