‘Taste’ Isn’t Just a Tyga Song, It’s Also What He Wants You to Do With His New Chicken Nuggets

On a recent evening, made longer by a pandemic that has entirely obliterated our perception of time, have you caught yourself wondering “What’s Tyga up to right now?” Same, and now we have answers. The “Taste” rapper, whose most iconic music was played during school dances while I was in middle school, has been busy whipping up… TYGA BITES.

No, Tyga Bites is not a new album. The rapper has, apparently, come to disrupt the chicken nugget space. According to a press release, Tyga Bites is a “celebrity-owned virtual dining concept” in collaboration with Robert Earl, the former CEO of Planet Hollywood. To create the chicken nuggets — which are only available through Grubhub — Tyga was paired up with celebrity chef Eric Greenspan to create the “carefully crafted, bite-sized all-natural” nubs of chicken. Baked, not fried.

For anyone concerned that Tyga’s culinary impact on the nugget might be overshadowed by the actual chef involved, the release ensures that Tyga got his hands dirty, “adding his own specialty spice dusts that sprinkle the chicken with the right amount of sweet and spice.” I want to know so much more about Tyga’s specialty spices. What was the inspiration for these blends? Has he been hiding his culinary talent from us all these years? What other skills has Tyga been keeping from us, his hungry fans?

The three nugget flavors are black garlic, lemon black pepper, and peri-peri — I must have them all, right now — and if you want to round out your Tyga-cooked meal with even more Tyga, perhaps you’d fancy a Tyga Tot. Said tots come both in regular and sweet potato, because Tyga understands how much we crave variety.

The nuggets launched first in major cities including LA, New York, and San Francisco, but the dusted nugs will be touching down in more cities soon. There’s a call on the Tyga Bites website for restaurants to join the movement, and become official resellers of the “celebrity backed” morsels.

I imagine Tyga personally showing up at each restaurant to walk the chefs through how to properly prepare the nuggets and corresponding spice blends. “Close your eyes for a second,” he says, just like at the start of “Rack City,” before lovingly sharing each step of his baked chicken nugget recipe. In reality, the restaurant spaces that work with Tyga Bites are likely treated as ghost kitchens, where frozen nuggets can be heated in the oven, packed up, and sent out into the world. But 2020 has been hard enough, and I’m going to hold on to this one fantasy.