One week after a giant Travis Scott head manifested itself atop Amoeba Records in Hollywood, the rapper’s latest release Astroworld has finally blessed our ears. And right there on the cover is that same head, ready to consume all. The 17-track album might seem like a behemoth next to the micro-works of Kanye West we’ve gotten used to, but there are plenty of gems here, including an appearance by Drake on “Sicko Mode” and Frank Ocean on “Carousel.” Other artists featured on the album include Swae Lee on “R.I.P. Screw,” Kid Cudi and James Blake on “Stop Trying to Be God,” Juice WRLD on “No Bystanders,” The Weeknd on “Skeletons,” 21 Savage on “NC-17,” NAV and Gunna on “Yosemite,” and Quavo and Takeoff on the song “Who? What!” Notably absent from the album is the single “Watch,” which Scott released earlier this summer featuring Kanye West and Lil Uzi Vert.
Listen to the full album below:
Travis Scott’s been talking about his upcoming third album, ASTROWORLD, since before his second album dropped. Arguably, even the biggest La Flame Stan isn’t more excited for this project to finally come out than the man himself is. Travis treats every solo project of his with a fine-tuned attentiveness to detail, curation, quality, and innovation. It’s why he hasn’t missed on a solo album yet. It’s what made his sophomore effort, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, a top 10 release of 2016. It’s what makes him Kanye’s most direct heir since Kid Cudi, whom Travis fittingly counts as an idol.
But ASTROWORLD feels different. It feels bigger. It is, by Travis’ own design, set up to be his watershed moment. In spring 2016, during the buildup to Birds, Travis told Zane Lowe, “ASTROWORLD is the album I always wanted to do,” describing the impending release he was supposed to be promoting as a mere “stepping stone.” He was even thinking ahead to the tour in support of the album, planning for it to be “one of the greatest tours of all time.”
The question becomes, then: Can ASTROWORLD be the album that fulfills Travis Scott’s self-prophesied musical destiny?
ASTROWORLD 8/3/18 @david_lachapelle A post shared by flame (@travisscott) on Jul 31, 2018 at 12:25pm PDT
With a classic mixtape under his belt, a No. 1 album, a musical affiliation with Kanye going back to 2012, three top 40 hits to his name, and a reputation for the best live show out, Travis Scott is far from being some critical darling still in search of his breakout album. Nonetheless, despite hitting No. 1, Birds only moved 88,000 equivalent albums in its first week, while Rodeo did 85,000. Travis is big already, but he still has more than enough room to grow. What he stands on now is the precipice of ubiquity, the chance to leverage the cultural cachet he’s already accrued into true A-listerdom. The climate couldn’t be better, on all fronts. A high-profile girlfriend and the birth of his first child provide a wealth of new emotional depth to mine. The clout garnered from past success to pull in both huge anticipation and even bigger collaborators. An outsize need to show and prove as he plots a label of his own with Cactus Jack. Before he puts his students on, La Flame has to achieve tenure first.
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Not to beat the Kanye comparisons into submission, but we’re witnessing La Flame aiming for his own stadium-status moment, that era when Ye sought to marry the sound we loved him for with far-reaching, arena-decimating appeal. What’s reassuring, beyond a proven track record that gives us no reason to doubt in the first place, is how Travis doesn’t appear to be compromising what we, the core fans, love about him in his bid to raise his profile. Whatever he cooked up with Tame Impala likely won’t be a far cry from the classic he made with The 1975. This man willed a Stevie Wonder collaboration into existence; I guarantee you it’s the only album this year (or decade) that will boast features from both Stevie and Sheck Wes. He’s making a sequel to what many of his Day 1s deem his best song. Content wise, if he does address his relationship with Kylie, even that won’t be much of a departure (never forget that “Goosebumps” is, intrinsically, a love song). And as for Stormi, imagine if he recruited Stevie for an “Isn’t She Lovely” in a more rodeo vein? Weird science is upon us.
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ASTROWORLD, named for the defunct Six Flags park in Houston, stands to be the hometown ode he’s been building to for his entire career. The stars are aligned for La Flame. He knows it—he’s gazing at them. And he’s ready to take it.
Travis Scott's new album ASTROWORLD is here. In addition to previously released single "Butterfly Effect," ASTROWORLD contains 16 additional tracks, and there are some impressive features: Frank Ocean makes a rare appearance while Drake and The Weeknd contribute vocals. Production comes from sources as wide as Boi-1da, Pharrell, and Tame Impala. Executive producer Mike Dean is credited on every song.
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It’s rumored that Stevie Wonder plays harmonica on “Stop Trying to Be God,” though he has no official credit at the time of writing. It is also believed James Blake and Kid Cudi appear on the same song. Scott thanked Wonder in a tweet sent after the album’s release.
Phillip bailey James Blake Stevie wonder thank u. #stopttrynnabegod — TRAVIS SCOTT (@trvisXX) August 3, 2018
See ASTROWORLD's tracklist and production credits below, via TIDAL.
Travis Scott is the stage name of Jacques Webster, a Houston-born hip-hop artist and producer affiliated with Kanye West's GOOD Music and T.I.'s Grand Hustle. Scott has a heavily Auto-Tuned half-sung/half-rapped vocal style, and refers to himself as a singer rather than a rapper. He's produced or co-produced tracks by Kanye West, Rihanna, and Drake, and he's appeared on tracks by Jay-Z, Pusha T, Meek Mill, and numerous others. Within four years of his 2012 mainstream arrival, Scott attained platinum singles as a lead artist and songwriter/producer, as well as a pair of Top Five studio albums, the latter of which went to number one.
Scott grew up in a suburb of Houston and began making music as a teenager. He formed a duo called the Graduates with Chris Holloway, and they released an EP in 2009. The following year he formed another duo, the Classmates, with OG Chess. Scott produced the duo's two full-lengths, Buddy Rich and Cruis'n USA, and the duo broke up by the end of 2011. After dropping out of college, Scott moved to Los Angeles and began recording music on his own. He met T.I. and eventually Kanye West. Scott was hired as an in-house producer for GOOD Music, and appeared on the label's Cruel Summer compilation in 2012. Scott's debut, Owl Pharaoh, was originally scheduled to be released as a free mixtape in 2012, but as his profile grew (including a placement in XXL Magazine's Freshman Class of 2013), and due to sample clearance issues, the album wasn't released until May of 2013. Featuring guest appearances by T.I. and 2 Chainz (on the single "Upper Echelon") as well as Toro y Moi and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, the mixtape eventually garnered a nomination for Best Mixtape at the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards.
The buildup to Scott's first proper studio album involved the Days Before Rodeo mixtape, promoted with the singles "Don't Play" and "Mamacita," and the March 2015 U.S. Rodeo Tour, for which Scott headlined, supported by Young Thug and Metro Boomin. Several of the dates sold out. During the same month, Rihanna's Scott-produced hit single "Bitch Better Have My Money" was released. "3500" and "Antidote" were released ahead of Rodeo, Scott's second full-length, which followed in September on Grand Hustle/Epic and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. Toward the end of the year, "Antidote" peaked at number 16 on the Hot 100 and became Scott's first platinum single.
Chatter regarding a follow-up, along with numerous delays, ensued throughout much of 2016. Meanwhile, Scott extended his commercial presence with featured spots on Wiz Khalifa's "Bake Sale," Rihanna's "Woo," and Kanye West's "FML," as well as a collaboration with Young Thug and Quavo, "Pick Up the Phone," a mid-year hit issued as the lead single of Young Thug's JEFFERY. Three months later, after "Bitch Better Have My Money" earned a platinum certification, Scott's second proper album arrived. Titled Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, after one of Quavo's lines in "Pick Up the Phone," the woozy, mostly midtempo set featured that hit and contributions from the likes of André 3000, Kid Cudi, and Kendrick Lamar. It went straight to the top of the Billboard 200. Leading up to his third LP, Scott appeared on "Kelly Price" from Migos' Culture and on Drake's "Portland" from the More Life project. The latter track peaked within the Top Ten of the Hot 100, Scott's highest chart placement to date. In 2017 Scott dropped the hazy, Migos-esque single "Butterfly Effect" and Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho, a collaborative project with Quavo. ~ Paul Simpson & Andy Kellman
