It was a small but electric crowd for the hip hop heavyweight Tyga. Photo / Leah Tebbutt
It was a small but electric crowd for the hip hop heavyweight Tyga. Photo / Leah Tebbutt
It was the perfect start to the long weekend and the perfect start to summer.
Home to a handful of artists, Hip Hop in the Park was a sweet taster for the rest of the summer line up the region has in store.
Homegrown acts, Melodownz, LMC, Poetik, Zee, Rakaand Kid Rey warmed up the crowd before the real show started.
International hip-hop fixture Tyga stormed the stage for close to an hour bringing nostalgia to the night with his most popular party hits from 2011 to 2014.
His RIAA-Certified accomplishments include the 4x platinum tracks, 'Taste', 'Rack City', and 'Dip' ft. Nicki Minaj to name a few.
Tyga's chart-topping history is undeniable with more than 30 hits on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and selling more than 638K albums, 12.2 million digital songs, and 1.4 billion on-demand streams.
Nostalgia flowed as the rapper sung his popular hits, 'Loyal' and 'Rack City'. Photo / Leah Tebbutt
His songs catered to the intimate 1000 strong crowd and high energy ensued as many could not believe it was Tyga in the flesh on a chilly Wednesday night in Mount Maunganui.
He dressed appropriately - straight off the plane from a sun-soaked sailing day in Sydney, he rocked up double layers with the puffer jacket to keep the six-degree wind at bay.
Dancers twerked, while fog cannons and lasers kept the hedonistic vibes hot but the small incline to the stage made the front row taller and mostly blocking the 5ft 10 rapper.
There was no attempt at small talk aside from the constant "turn it up one time" but that didn't matter as the people were there to party.
'Loyal' had the crowd hyped the most as he commended the single woman in the audience because as the song goes: these girls ain't loyal.
'Rack City', his biggest solo hit, made the crowd sing but he didn't close with this one.
It was 'Girls Have Fun' which ended the night and girls did have fun as 20 mounted the stage to get closer to the hip hop legend himself.
And then as quickly as it started it was over, and the rapper disappeared without so much as a goodbye.
