Travis Scott has made some of the most popular yet also the most creative music of the last 10 years he's known for hugely successful songs and unique album experiences like no other artist but at this point in time he's been all but gone from the music industry for 5 years with questionable material the few times he has showed up since 2018 so is Travis Scott an all-time great artist with an iconic style or is he a sellout who gave up his creativity for money and fame is he a musical Visionary or a marketer who just happens to make songs this is the insane true story of Travis Scott Travis Scott's sound has been unique from the very very beginning back in 2012 at the age of 20 he was working on Kanye's legendary yeus and cruel summer projects before he had even dropped his own debut mixtape and by the time he did drop his first mixtape he had production help and features from some really important artists who already saw his vision because Travis Scott risked it all for his dream of being an artist Travis Scott grew up his whole childhood in Houston a massive sprawling city in Texas that that he later described as being full of hungry grimy weird people he said that being around such a strange and dark environment as a child gave him the hunger and Edge to feel like he needed to get the hell out and find his own path in life I got a call from a little he said Yes Man I'm The so R who who so it makes sense that at the age of 19 Travis had enough and dropped out of college in his second year this video is sponsored by my streaming service nebula where you can watch my brand new exclusive original danger music right now in danger music I explore the Dark Side of live music with some truly insane stories about the most wild violent music ever made in a way that could never be published on YouTube so go check it out and watch danger music right after this video during an old interview with complex from 2012 he said that he lied to his parents he told them he needed money for books and a laptop and he spent all of it on a plane ticket to New York to meet with people and make music but New York didn't work out so he flew to La instead and he only survived by still lying to his parents and asking for more money for school while he was actually working on music and sleeping on people's couches in LA and that's how Travis got his first big break in the industry at the same time as his parents found out he was lying to them and ended up cutting him off from the family financially he was working on music every single day making beats developing his skills as a rapper as quickly as he possibly could his parents eventually showed up to the dorm room that he was supposedly staying at only to find out he wasn't there and that he was actually in California the whole time they ended up cutting off his phone and his bank account leaving him completely stranded out in California but his only goal at this point was to make music no matter who told him it was a bad idea he already hated being in school later saying that it was killing him to be sitting in class knowing that he could make it as a rapper if he tried so why not just try to chase his goals it wasn't like he had anything to lose and this first song lights which was quickly noticed by tii and Kanye it isn't a bad song at all it does feel like a kind of funny mix between old Kanye and kid Cy Travis's two biggest influences to this this day but it's not an amateurish song Travis's voice sounds great the beat is catchy my always about my attitude damn M know it all I met this chick who want to meet me up the Avenue I had a feeling we but even better this song ended up being the start of Travis's career it was noticed by TI who would later sign Travis to Grand Hustle but even more impactful than that just when Travis was at his lowest staying at a hotel paid for by an anr not knowing where to go having practically no money to his name he got a call from an engineer who was working with Kanye and he told him that Kanye wanted to meet him so Travis went back to New York he met Kanye he played him his music and that's where Travis Scott's career really began after getting noticed for lights this song that he made with no audience no fans no clout in the industry it was good enough that he was invited to work on Cruel Summer and yeus he contributed production to multiple songs on those projects developing the distorted industrial sound that he's continued to to build on ever since and don't forget all of this is before he ever dropped his first mixtape at this point in time Travis barely had a few songs released to the public but it was clear that the potential was there for him to make some great stuff and the right people had already started to notice but when he did drop his first mixtape after tons of delays and a complete rework by Kanye and Mike Dean giving it the executive producer treatment owl Pharaoh immediately became a modern classic it's a strange raw loud abrasive dark mixtape in all it's honestly not that good like it's a pretty early amateur rough sounding version of better music he would make later but it's still one of the best mixtapes I've personally ever heard it has so much personality and character in the music and a certain strangeness that Travis would give up later as he became a more experienced public artist in the future but songs like hell of a night Quintana upper echelon Uptown they're some of the best of their time their early 2010s trap music but there's a unique aesthetic that belonged specifically to Travis St from Mexico call the Quintana damn she smok my door swear to God we go his early music is dark it's weird it's kind of sparse distorted even creepy in a lot of ways I think he had some pretty Visionary ideas early in his career no matter how rough or raw Travis's early mixtapes were because they were pretty rough the ideas on these projects are pretty clearly ready to be developed into legendary pieces of music and Al faroh relatively was a huge hit it was interesting enough that Travis pretty much became one of the most promising new artists overnight around this time he was dropping lots of music upper echelon with its bizarre creepy Southern weirdness the pull out the we so high uper straight up we don't play with big sea in the 1975 know I need my D know a [ __ ] need my Comas she was down when I dropped out of college down she was down when I rote in Travis was bringing a lot of new ideas to the Trap genre in a way that made his songs still sound good to this very day listening back now songs like Uptown Meadow Creek hell of a night they still hold up because they were different you can definitely hear how much he was inspired by Kanye and his team and sequencing these mixtapes making the sound Melody's vocal Distortion but at the same time you can also hear how Travis's ideas did contribute to the overall sound of Kanye's work at this time as well Cruel Summer yeus even the life of Pablo I don't think those albums would sound the way they do without Travis having been around Kanye so his potential was crystal clear and that's how he got into the rooms he was in with those musical Legends early on in the first place they could just tell Travis Scott even in the first few years of his career he knew how to make his music sound like it was his days before Rodeo was Travis his next mixtape and it's even more so the same kind of project as Al faroh it's not a perfect album by any means but it's so full of ideas and potential that to this day some people consider it one of their very favorites and you know what I'm one of them I love days before Rodeo it doesn't matter how unpolished it is it doesn't matter that the mixing is terrible that there's no good quality versions out there to download it's just so packed with different sounds to a point where the end result is strong enough to stand on its own as a unique piece of music days before Rodeo is heavy dark and menacing almost all of the production ideas the vocal effects the flows that Travis would later turn into massively mainstream signature ideas they're present on this mixtape and an extremely pure form from the cultish beastly energy on zombies or the slow Eerie guitar Rift that introduces the thumping beat behind Mamita Quintana has some amazing rapping the production as intense as can possibly be drugs you should try it as an indie rock heartbroken [Music] ballad Skyfall features an insane Young Thug verse an early Metro boom and beat that fully foreshadows the sounds that would later come to dominate the music industry as these handful of artists grew up Young Thug's flow on Skyfall is perfect it's still one of my favorite songs he's ever made even the song gray which is this kind of goofy little bouncy song that sounds like trap meets Jack Johnson it has genuinely interesting production [Music] in 90% of the songs on days before rodeo still sound good to this day and it's one of the best mixtapes I've ever heard it is literally the definition of a cult classic and while it's relatively obscure the people who do know about it recognize it as one of the best projects Travis Scott made because even though days before Rodeo feels a little unfinished the raw energy from a young artist trying to prove himself more than makes up for that and that's why I just can't tell the story of Travis Scott without talking about how good days before Rodeo really is even though it's not on Spotify even though the majority of Travis fans have never listened to it it's just as creative and artistic as all of the vastly more popular albums that would later come after it it's not as cohesive or clean as Rodeo but from the experimental ideas and the production like the chanting on zombies to the delicate organs on the prayer it's a dramatic and immersive project to say the least and for some people maybe myself included it might be Travis Scott's best work but while days before Rodeo really set Travis up as being that guy who could be next up that guy who wasn't just making good music but was making fun music at the same time days before Rodeo didn't make Travis a star at least not yet because he still didn't really have a project out just singles owl faroh days before Rodeo they are both free mixtapes that couldn't be sold due to the fact that there were so many uncleared samples throughout the projects so back then Travis really only had singles out in the world on Spotify on Apple music on YouTube upper echelon mam you know those were great singles but they weren't all that popular they didn't actually chart and with under 100,000 followers on Instagram at the time playing venues with a capacity of maybe 4 or 500 people Travis Scott was still underground but he was on the way towards blowing up thanks to all the work he did for Kanye thanks to all the musical legends that were ready to coign him thanks to being on the double XXL freshman list but he wasn't mainstream yet and definitely not so when Travis dropped rodo that's what really put him on the path to being a major star but even more than that Rodeo is a type of album that doesn't even really exist anymore I'm ready to argue all day that it's genuinely a modern classic that it's sending the test of time in a way that very few other albums do but why first of all it's perfectly sequenced and it genuinely feels like so much more than just a collection of songs like so many albums today there is a vision behind Rodeo a Common Thread of motifs the album is driven by ideas in its content and its sound so in my mind Rodeo is one of the best albums of the 2010s personally it's one of my favorite albums ever for me Rodeo represents everything that an album should be as an art form thanks to the way that Travis and his producers and collaborators combined interesting sounds with Mass Appeal vocals and lyrics that are unique and substantially experimental while having a Mass Appeal at the same time and because of that Rodeo created a new standard for what trap music could be about the album itself though it was clear from the earliest moments of Travis's career that he was kind of a Visionary even his early work like owl Pharaoh days before Rodeo it's not good because it's shiny and Polished it's good because it feels like listening to a creative breakthrough it's not a still life painting with perfect proportions and colors and shapes it's a raw expressionistic picture of a Raging Bull with crooked lines angry colors and unexpected figures energy and shock value pushes art forward that's what Travis was doing in his early career and Rodeo is the absolute peak of that idea this album just starts going and it doesn't stop the concept of rodeo itself comes from the idea that Travis felt his life pursuing success in music had become a struggle he said this during an interview it's like a Beyonce concert the carnival the livestock the show it's all a part of the event I feel that's how my life is the carnival is like my imagination it's the drive behind my vision and this theme of Travis's life being a rodeo appears as a Common Thread throughout the album from beginning to end and somehow Travis first album managed to be a chaotic musical Rodeo full of Unstoppable energy complex song structures in a project that overall feels like a beautifully cinematic sonically diverse musical Journey beginning with the intro trck pornography that sets the stage for Travis's career as a superstar with lyrics that perfectly describe his mission as TI narrates the album's introduction it serves as a kind of introduction overall for Travis as a rapper describing his mission as an artist the middle of their metamorphosis not quite through what they Journey ain't made it to wherever the [ __ ] they going to be in life but wherever it is it's better than here so [ __ ] you Fu and it's followed by just one of the best sequences of songs I've ever heard to this day oh my disde is a two-part track that starts as a cold dark melancholic Banger with Travis singing about his experiences trying to make it in the music industry and everything he sacrificed to get to this point the beat switch introduces some funky Keys becomes much happier instrumental with these little washes of synth and Soulful Melodies with Travis and quo rapping about the life they left behind back in their hometowns of Houston and Atlanta lines like mama kicked me out the house now I might end up on a couch now I'm on a flight now La at another couch now it directly references the stories that Travis tells about being 20 or 21 years old and trying to find his big break in music back in the [Music] day the couch now oh my I'm on a flight now yeah oh my La another third song 3500 it's an almost 8 Minute track feature in future in Two Chains with the title referencing the absurdity of Kim cardashian buying her daughter a $3,500 coat at the age of two being produced by Travis Metro boomman Sunny digital and Mike Dean the beat for 3500 features multiple movements full of layered synth melodies for Lauren strings deep bass and a gorgeous outro that lasts for over a minute Ladi a iters Got Back you got to love it out in my HS I got a Lobby of them up and down Monday wasted with Juicy J is a filthy Southern rap track where Travis pushes his voice to new heights of distortion while Juicy J lays out a DED flow and TI ends the song with a spoken word verse about Travis as the hero with an uncertain fate in the dark world they're creating with the music in this [ __ ] compers on my hip I hold my head I've been taking R to make that money flip I stood [Music] I the next song though is one of the most legendary songs Travis Scott ever made 90210 is the Bohemian rap city of the 2010s it's a long song almost 6 minutes but there are multiple beautiful sections that take us on a cinematic journey through his new lifestyle as a rap star living in Beverly Hills painting the ups and downs of his new life with equally Vivid colors from the storyline about a girl Travis knows who will do anything for a taste of Fame and money to the point where it's just as depressing as it is fun to the way that he sings about his Pursuit Of Fame tearing him away from his family before the success brought them back together it's a song that relies heavily on contrast and Drug deposition yeah my granny call she said Travy you work too hard I'm worry you forget about me I'm falling in and out of Cl don't worry I'm get it granny in the last verse he wraps gold chains gold rings I got got an island on me houses on me he got them ounces on him referring to both the value of his jewelry being worth a house but also to the fact that becoming rich added so much more responsibility on his shoulders from the beautiful feature from Casey Hill to the guitar solo to the dreamy farway piano chords to one of my favorite lyrics ever as Travis sings my granny called she said Travy you work too hard I'm worried you'll forget about me it's a beautiful story about the weight and the Dark Side of chasing success and the price that has to be paid for becoming the hero of your own story and it's just a perfect track from Travis's humming to the sample of a sample taken from Kanye's family business for a lot of Travis Scott fans myself included this is his greatest musical achievement it's the type of song that could only be made by an artist with something to prove to the world someone searching for their purpose and someone on the verge of achieving everything they've ever wanted maybe it isn't Travis's most popular song but it's definitely one of the realest pieces of music he's ever made it's Travis's Own Story written in a way where many people can apply their own experience ices to it and that's why it's been so Timeless and it's still loved to this day 8 years later but even Beyond 90210 there are many other amazing moments on Rodeo that make it the Cinematic Masterpiece it really is pray for love features the weekend it has a mind-blowing sense of progression and structure for lost St fate and die too young pray for the ones I hate the ones I love pray for my liver when I'm off in this club demons go away us Nightcrawler is again a bomb ftic sprawling Banger with an explosive verse from Chief [Music] Keef shots on the is hotter than a the winner couldn't chill me young free Wilding Piss On Your Grave is one of the only songs where Travis and Kanye rap together despite working together for over 10 years piss on your gra pissing your gray this one here for the executives [ __ ] you and all of your relatives pissing your gray pissing your gra pissing your gra pissing your gra pissing your gra antidote was Travis Scott's first big hit impossible is a meditative dark moody song that follows closely in the footsteps of drugs you should try it from days before Rodeo it's one of my favorite songs in the series of dark thoughtful emotional songs that despite straying far away from the turned up demented Rage music Travis always makes he still includes on almost every project with me you wish you could now always come and go and never fail it was never love I could tell now she up Nails just to get it up feel heavily inspired by of course Kanye's work on 808s and heartbreak except impossible is somehow even more stripped back than that already minimalistic pop music was with a beat that would be almost ambient without drums Maria I'm drunk is a masterpiece of a song that features Young Thug and Justin Bieber flying high has one of my favorite progressions of any song on Rodeo despite being the least streamed song on the project project horo imoa added not just vocals but entire breakdown in his Vivid melodic Indie style of course Rodeo ends with a bang with some of my favorite instrumentals lyrics and Melodies actually coming in the last four songs never catch me has one of my favorite Travis beats okay all right is a dreamy Floy Masterpiece but apple pie is a perfect outro for the album Travis kind of comes full circle on the album storyline and finishes the process of growing up that he's been experiencing becoming a rock star changing his family's perception of him of course with a price I don't want your apple pie Mama yeah I ain't trying to D them [ __ ] blocking me yeah made it out after two verses about leaving his family behind to find his Destiny and create his legacy and build a life of his own leaving behind the safety of everything he knew tii gives this spoken word outro where he says tours and shows and groupy [ __ ] wouldn't hesitate if he had to shoot though he'd rather not yet in still the question that arises to the mind will he make it was it worth it did he win will he survive the rodeo and that's more or less exactly what Rodeo is all about throughout the record Travis encounters these different Terrible Things drugs women all these horrible influences that aren't good for him things that can distract him from his goals and steal his future but he Embraces it because he's on this journey to fame and transforming himself from a kid in Houston to an internationally known rap star from pornography to 90210 to apple pie he's on this journey dodging evil trying to escape with his soul still in one piece as he chases Fame and Fortune and I think that's why Rodeo has lasted so long and become a cult classic album because in a lot of ways it is unintentionally or maybe intentionally Loosely following one of the most timeless story structures ever from the ancient Greek Odyssey to Star Wars to Lord of the Rings to good kid Mad City some of the most famous stories of all time can be called a hero's journey it's a type of story structure or a template for a narrative where a hero goes on an adventure they encounter different kinds of tests and trials they meet meet enemies and allies and eventually you reach a point in the story where the hero is an entirely different person from when they started that's the story of rodeo and that is the story of Travis Scott himself but at the same time I think the main reason why Rodeo has lasted so long is the complexity of the song structures almost every track has buildups crashing resolutions hard-hitting drops elaborate intros beat switches Bridges the sense of theatrics the wide angle panoramic skill that Travis cult cated on Rodeo it's not all that surprising that this album is considered a pioneering piece of music it's one of the best albums that was ever made in the Trap genre and it still sounds new to this day because Rodeo is more than just a trap album it's more than just a pop rap album thanks to the story the album tells with its production its layout and its lyrics and vocals I think it's going to last much longer than anything else Travis or his peers were making at this time not long after Rodeo Travis announced a new album Astro World naming it after a legendary closed down abandoned theme park in his hometown Houston but it would be more than 3 years until that album came to life and in the meantime he had a few more projects to put out first so Travis's next actual full length album after Rodeo dropped less than a year later and I personally consider birds in the Trap sing mcnight a double-edged sword it's not Rodeo it's really not Rodeo but I don't think that's what it was supposed to be I think it's easy to forget that looking back 7 years later it's actually the album that made Travis Scott a household name and it was technically way more successful than rodeo in terms of sales and streams but I'm going to be straight up with you guys I just don't think it's as good of an album even though it did major numbers and it made Travis an A-list rapper it's just not the same experience so what is the deal with this strange maybe underrated maybe overrated middle album that Travis would later say wasn't even meant to be a sequel to Rodeo but was instead just something he had to get out of the way before Astro World first of all the birds intro track is just insane this is one of the best songs Travis ever put together hands down it's one of my favorite songs he ever made from the moment the Deep melodic Bas rumbles through the speakers to Travis's rough singing setting the tone for a dark and emotional album all the way to Andre 3000's verse about the highly disturbing yet true story of the 30 children and young adults who were murdered by Wayne Williams in the late '70s and the early ' 80s many of the victims being the same age as Andre 3000 at the time it's an extremely unique song with a minimal beat that really relies on the excellent performances of Travis and Andre to set the tone for the darkness of birds makings we just Mak hes my was just hob call tell load up the lobby elev xray vision seeig and there are a lot of other great songs and great sounds on bird throughout the project honestly it's full of great tracks you can see why most of these songs have hundreds of millions of plays on Spotify or even more from the fluid non-stop song structure that goes from beat to beat to beat on way back as Travis rides a groovy flow fig [Music] back Lan The Haunting sound of cordinate that starts with keys and drums feeling like a dreamy Bird's eyee view of Travis's relationship with drugs that was only becoming an even stronger part of his music as he became a bigger and bigger artist B make a dick if [ __ ] get out line [ __ ] want to do something [ __ ] we can do it [Music] [Applause] [ __ ] the dreamy ethereal sounds of STP [Music] interlude the dog always find his way back home and it's so true the monstrously intimidating beat and flow on outside on the be yeah balance on the be yeah do some [ __ ] I never seen won't you come ride with the team yeah yeah you might just R home scre the insanely popular songs like Goosebumps pick up the phone those goods every time yeah you come around yeah you e my mind you make [Music] everything the weekend's beautiful feature on the outdraw track [Music] wonderful pull [Music] down birds in the Trap has some amazing moments the production throughout this record feels intense and dark but beautiful at the same time with flashes of melodic Beauty popping up like light in the dark through the muddy Bassy nocturnal low-end powerful instrumentals sluggish baselines combined with sparkling keyboards the albums soundscapes are intentionally all over the place and the Vibes really are nocturnal and drugged out songs like sweet sweet outside and guidance feature instrumentals that are dark and deep behind you from the you staying I got I got with a sense of catchiness still shining through which really did reflect the album's Loosely overarching themes discussing Travis's drug fueled Rockstar life that was affecting him for the better and worse at the same time it was also a theme that he depicted in the birds in the Trap short film that begins with a scene where Travis's girl just up and leaves him without him even really seeming to care due to his ego and pride only to end up paying the ultimate price for his arrogance dying and coming back to life as a robot and with these kind of dark hedonistic songs combined combined with the hauntingly beautiful deeply layered production Birds has a very unique cohesive sound that stands alone in Travis's discography he hadn't made something like this before and he didn't really make something like this after but on the other level above the songs and sounds it was a downgrade from Rodeo the Epic feeling of rodeo being a true rags to Rich's story for Travis with some personal songwriting excellent lyrics and deeper themes that's a big downgrade on birds the lyrics are mid at best and on some songs they're just straight up bad B even Travis's vocal mixing doesn't really help sometimes the Distortion and the autotune drenched in Reverb sounds atmospheric other times it's easy to lose exactly what's going on or why too much of a good thing a lot of the edge that Travis came with on Rodeo songs like 90210 or Piss On Your Grave or Maria I'm drunk that quality those memorable stories it's not really present here the lyrics are pretty whatever and it's just not an album experience like Rodeo was and those are some of the main reasons why I became a Travis fan in the first place because the guy really knows how to make an album but birds did end up being a really successful project anyway it was Travis's first number one album on the charts and it truly turned him into a rap star with song like Goosebumps going eight times platinum and overall birds in the Trap is a quality record even though it's not an impeccably crafted concept album like Rodeo it caught the rising wave of the Trap sound in mainstream music and it made Travis one of the biggest names in a genre that was quickly becoming the biggest genre around and ultimately I think if Travis had made another Rodeo instead of something safe and full of easy hits like birds to grow his audience he might not be the star he is today he might never have had the opportunity to make the other albums that he did later on but again after an album that just was pretty good Travis had been teasing this Astro World project for forever he was saying that it was going to drop in 2016 at first then he did birds then in 2017 it was supposed to come out again but he ended up dropping a different project honcho Jack with quo and even though I'm a big fan of Travis I'm not going to pretend that huno Jack was anything special that being said there are definitely some amazing beat on hono Jack from motorcycle patches to Modern slavery to Moon Rock to Dubai [ __ ] who that is do [ __ ] do whips different place different chips and hro Jack is a pretty good trap album thanks to that cohesive sound and production even if there's nothing really special about it that makes it still hold up as interesting to this day it's definitely worth listening to if you never have before but might not be something you want to listen to twice even before Travis's generation of artists hit it big in 2016 or 2017 bringing the Trap sound into the mainstream as far back as 2012 or 2013 songs like jewels and drugs from Lady Gaga's Art Pop Dark Horse by Katy Perry Flawless by Beyonce these were giant pop tracks that had a trap style and they were some of the first times that trap music reached the mainstream pop landscape so by the time that artists like Travis Scott Young Thug Metro boomman when they came along they were in a position to Elevate trap Beyond its Southern Roots and turn it into a force of commercialism and Artistry that would last for a long time trap songs like trap Queen Panda black Beatles bad ouie bodak yellow this is America these were extremely dominant on the charts and in social media around the time that birds in the Trap in Astro World dropped and even bigger pop songs like seven rings and thank you next from Ariana Grande Havana by Camila Cabello Oldtown Road the late 2010s were dominated by the sound of trap music and Travis Scott was quickly becoming not one of the most popular artists of that moment but someone whose work would Define the whole genre some of the most critically acclaimed work of that scene and in a way he would go on to last many many years longer than the genre itself but Astro World was finally released in August of 2018 after 2 years of rumors delays side projects lucies and so the hype was massive AST world had become this idea this hypothetical giant singles like watch and Butterfly Effect were extremely successful he was featured ing on massive other songs like Dark Knight DMO love Galore zezy Portland and so the idea of Astro World itself had come to have so much weight to it an album full of Travis's Soul represented by the memory of a defunct Theme Park in Houston Texas you could feel the spirit of this record before it was even out the way that Rodeo told the hero's journey the way that Rodeo came together to form a story with memorable themes and motifs Astro World was supposed to be everything that album was but even bigger the album experience was supposed to be exciting and meaningfully interesting at the same time if the hype could be believed Astro world was going to be the big one but not just the biggest also the best in music it's extremely hard to deliver on hype especially for someone like Travis who was already one of the biggest artists in hip-hop after the commercial success of birds he was already dating a Kardashian he had already made some of the best hip-hop albums and mixtapes of The Last 5 Years but somehow he didn't just deliver on the hype for Astro World he destroyed it Astro World sold six times what birds in the Trap sold in its first week it was the fifth largest streaming week ever at the time of its release when it finally left the top of the Billboard charts it came back 2 months later it sold 2 million copies double platinum in like 3 and 1/2 months by the end of 2018 and to this day over 260 Weeks Later Astro world has still never left the Billboard charts maybe arguably Maybe objectively Astro World is the biggest rap album of the last 10 years it is one of the biggest rap albums ever in my opinion it's one of the best it is the actual definition of a modern classic when you open up the dictionary and you search up modern classic the picture they show you is just of that inflatable golden Travis Scott head that was popping up all over America in the weeks before the album finally dropped after 2 years of explosive hype in this era of Travis's career was almost Unstoppable Astro World just lasted so long most albums just don't last that long but there was just so much effort putting into branding packaging promoting and selling this album it had to become an icon but of course none of that would have worked if it hadn't been as good as it was in terms of sound AST world isn't all that similar to birds and trap or even Rodeo I would easily call birds and Rodeo dark menacing distorted albums even in some ways twisted and weird but AST world is psychedelic colorful vibrant it's an amusement park of music that takes the formula of rodeo and by that I mean a mix of fun songs with some experimental ideas and it makes it feel so cinematic and engaging and it combines that with a sound that simultaneously Innovative and catchy to a level that made it one of the most popular albums in the world for 5 years straight because stylistically there's something for everybody on AST world it's meant to be a massive spectacle from start to finish it's meant to keep you engaged and make you not want to stop listening of course it also had to be interesting to hardcore fans as well which it was but of course list listen this isn't the meat riding Olympics so there are a good amount of tracks on AST world that are just are not that great um it's not a perfect album because I I don't think the Perfect album could possibly exist that's not a real idea but it's still a great experience that it stands apart from the rest of the genre and the time it was made in in a lot of ways because Travis Scott knows how to sequence an album to make it not boring and to make it engaging for a long time to come Astro world starts with stargazing which blends this beautiful psychedelic sound full of autotuned mumbling singing where Travis's voice is manipulated and chopped to feel more like an instrument than a rapper with trap drums keeping it grounded likey got me going crazy py in the middle of the song The Beat switch flips and the Psychedelic rocket takes off into space with Travis fiendishly wrapping over tighter faster drums and deeper darker since and Bas Carousel features an homage to Texas hip hop from Big Tuck at the beginning of the song before Frank Ocean and Travis take turns weaving effortless verses together on top of a beat that I thought could have been a lot better especially for someone like Frank Ocean don't need a vacation I need a replacement bu in the light outy soon as we came in what did they but the next six or seven songs in a row are some of my favorites Travis ever made SEO mode obviously ended up being an insane success to the point of mostly everybody being tired of hearing it forever it was the first hip-hop song to ever spend 30 weeks in the Billboard top 10 singles it was Travis's first ever number one single it got multiple Grammy nominations and it has three distinct musical movements four featured artists eight listed producers it's a blockbuster song that was genuinely inescapably popular for years after it came out Honestly though syo mode it's not as good as the tracks that came after it on this album it makes sense why it was the most popular song to come out of Astro World or even honestly Travis's entire career so far but even though sio mode has three beats none of them are really that interesting is down freezing cold that's how we already know when it's here my dog will probably do it for Louis B that's just all he know he don't know El if I wanted to be silly and pretentious I would use words like humid or chaotic to describe a song like this but ultimately I just don't like it sure it's an exciting song with a lot of quotable lyrics but it really sounds like a 2018 trap song and there are other tracks on this album that have a much more interesting sound that dives a lot deeper than this one does but even though I don't think sio mode is really special or all that good it ended up being a huge factor in Travis Scott becoming one of the most popular rappers alive and I won't deny that at all but personally though there is one part of sio mode I actually like the music video is really interesting it's very entertaining and there are lots of creative visual cinematography techniques that I still look at to this day and think how do they do that so I 100% see why that video has over a billion views on YouTube rip screw is one of my favorite songs from Astro world it's heavily inspired by the late '90s early 2000s Houston Hip Hop with a slow laid-back Tempo and Spacey production the Mike Dean syns sway Le's Heavenly vocals and Travis's very chill rap verse pay tribute again to the classic Houston style rest in peace is tonight we take it [Music] slowly the end of that song transitions straight into stop trying to be God which is one of Travis's more relaxed low-key songs with him rapping melodically about humility and religion over a Godly backdrop of Stevie Wonder's harmonica kid C's humming Mike Dean's church organs and James Blake's mournful layered Angelic singing all at the same time [Music] time this is definitely one of the more defining creative moments of AST world and I look back on it all the time while Travis's previous projects were defined by a late night feeling that made him almost the Trap version of the weekend with booming Atlanta sounds instead of clean R&B Astro World is much more clear colorful and psyched with introspection that isn't hidden under a layer of drugs skeletons somehow packs a ton of content into 2 and 1/2 minutes I just don't understand how this song has so much going on all at once Fel Williams the weekend Travis all singing together in an ocean of formless Reverb Kanye writing the lyrics Tam and Pala producing the track making it a full-on 100% verified real psychedelic rock hip-hop crossover in my opinion skeletons is a masterpiece the drum breakdowns the grungy Bass the symbols hitting like waves on a beach we just I gave a a check it was good sex honorable mention to the net didn't that was out of respect after pass it has a beautiful Progressive sound like nothing else I've heard wake up with the weekend is a really horny song that I actually usually skip I like the production it's based around this really bluesy feeling guitar riff and the minute long outro has a great guitar solo that strangely Clips in the mix on top of swirling keys but I just don't like the lyrics on the song I think it's kind of weird you could call me Catholic but it's just not for me I don't want toake up I want you spread out on the sheets so [Music] good but 5% tint is a really similar song it has a piano Melody that feels almost the exact same as the guitar riff from wake up and the dirty Southern Ambiance that I'm almost sure is a chopped up sample of a pig snorting calls back to Upper Echelon one of Travis's first singles it has a very similar atmosphere to that song In general the 5% tint Motif is lifted from The Mike Jones Slim Thug and Paul Wall song Still tipping from 2005 before you come outside I got the info took it to the endone from the Endo no I let aoke nc7 is the least streamed song in AST world it's kind of low light for the whole project it's just a pretty generic 2018 trap song and it's not really as thoughtfully made or planned as the rest of the project but Astro Thunder is again different it's a lot like skeletons on this song Travis Scott brought multiple highly accomplished producers to the studio to create a Vibe unlike anything else he had worked on before even though it's only 2 minutes long and it's basically just a short interlude with one verse from Travis the production from Frank Dukes the synths from vegan the Bass from Thundercat the guitar from John Mayer it gives this song A beautiful sound with lots of tiny details like analog feeling fuzz in the mix and dreamy melancholic Melodies that float above the song Like Stars shimmering in the night [Music] sky seem the bass and the drums dance underneath and almost silent space lasers shoot across the mix while John Mayer's hypnotic guitar wistfully ends the song in just one verse Travis Scott tells this story about his lonely and isolated mindset that comes from his desire to be a better person despite the short length of the song it says a lot and this is one of my favorite songs from AST World overall yosd feels like nav and Gunna got most of its runtime which is kind of crazy to me looking back it's kind of a shitty song but this is another one of those tracks on Astro world that's good it continues the dreamy floating psychedelic aesthetic and with that being said yosd is one of the most streamed songs on Astro World it was a huge hit back in the day even though it's not one of the the most memorable anymore and I personally don't prefer it for any reason at [Music] all through the I get a CH r on my pants my CH dress clean up a I eat a FLH you know the rest can't say is a very colorful expressive song with some of Travis's best vocals and it's also the track that introduced Don Tolliver to the world he was a young rapper also from Houston whose melodic R&B singing has a very unique texture that meshes perfectly with Travis's autotune vocals creating this vast expressive colorful soundscape of harmonies and Melodies and it's one of the most dreamy unique songs Travis has ever [Music] made clean all at the same time he's still referencing in the production the Houston Chopped and Screwed Style with pitch down vocals and slow almost lethargic drums in the outro can't say is one of my favorite trap songs ever I absolutely love this track and I come back to it all the time but of course I can't talk about Astro world without mentioning Coffee Bean the ending track that is another Contender for possibly the best song Davis ever made ultimately astal world is just one of those albums it takes all of the greatest ideas Trends and motifs of its generation it mixes them in with some experimental sounds some very real songs it mixes different genres with the Psychedelic trap sound that's either very trap or very psychedelic depending on the track it has some really beautiful moments of both and the end result is that Astro World feels diverse and creative enough to essentially be one of the best mainstream trap albums ever it's an amusement park in musical form that does a million things all at once with the right Fusion between unexpected and expected to make Astro World an icon of its generation musically it really was and still is one of the best trap albums ever made maybe it's not the most experimental maybe it's not the most raw and real maybe it's lacking in lyricism but almost every song on AST World brings something unique to the table in a genre that was often full of filler or generic sounds almost every other trap album sounds whack in comparison to the size and scale of this one the reason why I like Astro World so much is that Travis and his team made it so poppy while also making it interesting they added all these little details and styles and sounds with the Heavenly floating Ambiance attributes to Houston rap the Psychedelic textures yeah Travis only really put down a few actually great verses on here yes there are definitely some more bland trap beats that sound dated nowadays like nc7 and who what and there are definitely some underwhelming features and lyrics on Astor so I don't want you guys to say I'm glazing because for me AST world isn't perfect but it's still one of the defining moments in music that only comes around a few times every decade it's a moment where something that's really good becomes really popular and as a result it stays in the cultural Consciousness for a long time not just an album but an icon it's still early but I almost want to say it could be put on the same list as beautiful dark Twisted Fantasy you know Pink Floyd's albums Ziggy Stardust radio head Nirvana I'm not saying that AST world is as good as those albums because I don't think it is musically But as time goes on I think it's going to be just as iconic visually sonically commercially is it a classic like those is it perfect like a lot of those albums I just listed I don't think so but is it going to be just as iconic as those albums honestly I think it will be I think this album is going to last for a very very long time I think it's going to be an icon of Pop culture for many years and honestly it already has it's been on the billboard 200 for 5 years straight there hasn't been a hip-hop album that successful in the 5 years since it came out for trap music for this current ERA of hip-hop there probably won't be ever again so in short Astro world has a great atmosphere cool beats and honestly I still sit down and listen to it 5 years later so what more could I possibly ask for in a world of Music That's here today and gone tomorrow so anyway after Astro World Travis Scott was officially the biggest rapper in the world he had the biggest album he was throwing the most insane concerts he had a kid with one of the most famous women in the world so Astro World was really the roller coaster that took him to the top of the industry the only problem was what goes up must come down but after Astro World everything in Travis Scott's career was amazing for a long time he wasted no time dropping more music after Astro World highest in the room became his second number one single just a year later with a beautiful music video showing a new futuristic sci-fi chain in his creative [Music] Direction then just a few months after that he went to number one again with the Scots by him and kid cuy then he went to number one again with the song franchise at the end of 2020 another highly successful project that Travis put together during this time was the Jack boys mixtape which featured one of my favorite Travis songs and visuals ever for Gotti with the late and great pop [Music] smoke blue yelling flame hot moves pop flare hotak my hand I have my face duck away she want I lay up and H the AST World Tour grossed $63 million and Travis Scott merch and visuals became the [ __ ] modern-day Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon t-shirt maybe I'm crazy but I feel like you couldn't go outside without seeing Astro World merch for years and I still see it I still see people walking around with wish you were here Astro World t-shirts out in public I mean for [ __ ] sake I was wearing one for like 2 years straight half of my FIT picks from 2019 are just me wearing an Astro World wish you were here t-shirt I'm pretty sure the Astro World Wishy were here t-shirt is the only piece of rapper merch I ever bought and I wore that [ __ ] to death basically what I'm saying is the icons the images of the AST World era became you ubiquitous with music and pop culture itself but I also want to mention another single he put out during this era the plan from the tenet soundtrack never saw that movie but this was amazing produced by Wonder Girl and Ludwig Ganson I think you all definitely should hear this incredible beat if you haven't already like H [ __ ] I it patient s i you know you thrilling off a how I got my stries and pend backing out in the street wild but moving on Travis Scott's insane rise popularity didn't stop at just a few number one songs it became so much more than that this guy was legitimately becoming one of the biggest pop icons in the Western World these were things that just don't happen to any old rapper okay like I want to emphasize you know most people who make albums are not getting put on seral boxes in every grocery store in America they don't give just anybody a McDonald's meal but the Travis Scott Reese's puff cereal boxes were getting snatched up by resellers to post on grailed and stockx at huge markups like they were a t-shirt or a pair of shoes the Travis Scott McDonald's meal was the first celebrity McDonald's meal since Michael Jordan in 199 [ __ ] 2 I don't know for sure but the articles online wrote that Travis Scott was paid $20 million for his McDonald's meal that is literally once in a generation marketability and branding they hadn't made a celebrity McDonald's meal since the year Travis Scott was born personally I was not about to go buy a quarter pounder with cheese just because Travis Scott was on the box I'm not trying to get cucked by McDonald's for some shitty ass food but that [ __ ] caused a frenzy the Travis Scott McDonald's meal was so popular that hundreds of restaurants ran out of the ingredients that they needed to make Quarter Pounders with cheese they literally ran out of food how often does McDonald's run out of burgers and cheese of course there were people who hated on Travis Scott they called him a complete sellout saying that his music career was was a late stage capitalist Nightmare and he was nothing but an empty voice to sell products through but it was an undeniably massively successful marketing campaign for McDonald's and Travis Scott and it only further pushed him to new Pinnacles of Fame he was a household name but on the other side of it there were even some people who said that Travis Scott's daughter with Kylie Jenner who was born a few months before Astro World dropped was basically just a marketing campaign to keep him more and more in the public eye but no matter what you think of all of this Scott was undeniably becoming a master of pop art a once in a generation icon where everything he made was desirable just because his name was on it one of the craziest things that happened during this era of Travis's career was the spiked Seltzer cacti brand that sold out almost everywhere even though most people said the actual drink itself was terrible people just wanted to buy a drink that had Travis Scott on the can and trust me I've tried cacti it tastes like [ __ ] Travis Scott Scott is ultimately one of only a small group of Pop Culture figures artists musicians rappers or not that have done something like that in our lifetime leveraging their art to become an icon of consumerism and I'm sure that a lot of you think you know this era of Travis Scott kind of ruined his music took away his raw image took away his Persona and turned him into a sellout the Travis Scott McDonald's meal was the first McDonald's celebrity meal in 30 years the first one in Travis Scott's life But ultimately we'll never really know just how far Travis truly could have gone with his music career image and brand because in November of 2021 on the first day of Travis's Astor Festival a soldout festival with over 50,000 people attending 10 people were killed in a crowd crush a major tragedy that essentially stopped Travis's entire career in its tracks the details of what exactly went wrong at Astro World Festival 2021 are extremely complicated but also tragic iic and disturbing ultimately though at the end of everything even after billions of dollars in lawsuits were filed against Travis Scott for his involvement in the event no criminal charges were filed against anybody the judge in the case said that a tragedy isn't always a crime kind of in the same way after a long period of hatred toward Travis Scott the general public consensus was reached that no one person was responsible for the disaster since the tragedy was caused by a widespread highlevel lack of proper organization and planning the security the Logistics and most of it had nothing at all to do with Travis himself but at the same time perfectly understandably Travis Scott's public reputation was basically destroyed by the Astro World Festival disaster again understandably it was an absolutely horrible look for him and everyone around him and while it later came out that he didn't even know anyone was actually hurt during the show and he didn't even find out that people had died until after he left the venue the videos of him keeping the show going during the disaster were a terrible look especially considering that he had a long history of encouraging people to fight or break things at shows and it had already led to incidents like someone becoming permanently paralyzed after getting pushed From A Balcony during a Travis show in 2017 and of course I'm also going to mention the fact that he was arrested and fined multiple times for encouraging his concert goers to break down barriers and beat up security guards of course Travis doesn't control what people do at his shows but with some of his most famous lyrics being it ain't a MH pit if ain't no injuries a lot of people were understandably confused and of course naturally all of the companies and brands that Travis had been collaborating with and representing for the past few years they dropped him immediately the Travis Scott dance was taken out of fortnite all of Travis's upcoming performances were cancelled Travis Scott day in Houston was cancelled Nike canceled the announcement of his next shoe collaboration Dior canceled an entire Cactus Jack menswar collection all the fast food stuff serial boxes the hard Seltzer brand McDonald's it was all done immediately a TV documentary was made about AST World Festival and it was called concert from Hell Travis Scott was essentially legitimately canceled and it really didn't help that his apology video was one of the shittiest apology videos I've ever seen in my life it wasn't clear if Travis Scott would ever perform live again it wasn't clear if he would ever make music again looking back it's obvious that you know celebrities are always forgiven time goes on people always forget but Travis Scott really had to lay low for a long time I remember people talking about like yeah you Utopia will come out at some point eventually but when it seemed like it could take years until he was actually accepted back into the public eye after having been shunned by every brand and event he was working with at the time but ultimately it wasn't years until Travis returned and relaunched his career it was a lot more like 6 months I would say his relaunch was pretty quiet but his first live performance after the Astro World disaster was literally 6 months later at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards and it wasn't all that long after until Travis was releasing music and featuring on other artist songs again but the only problem was a lot of people thought that what he was dropping was honestly pretty bad first of all a lot of people didn't love escape plan and Mafia these were the two songs that dropped the night of the AST World disaster looking back these were probably intended to start the Utopia rollout but they were also pretty critically panned at the same time to me escape plan and Mafia just felt like pretty generic trap songs I'm really glad that these didn't end up being part of a Travis project even if the reason for that was pretty dark and terrible was es investig was I ering open G but there were even more songs that a lot of Travis fans just didn't love down in Atlanta with farel that was kind of a song full of lost potential with a great beat that Travis didn't really capitalize on a from Lil uzi's pink tape some of the songs from Metro boom's heroes and villains a lot of people didn't even like his verse on D and even though he did come out with some great features too like fair trade from certified lover boy or [ __ ] in millions from her loss and I also loved his verse on siza's SOS I'll be honest for the most part I thought the quality of Travis's future music was looking pretty unclear Some of the rapping he was putting out at this time was just not that good there were a lot of generic flows a lot of unmemorable lyrics and at this point it had been years since Astro World it had been years since he even started teasing Utopia back in 2020 and there was no real news on whether or not Utopia even still existed Travis's momentum was disappearing very quickly after it had already been destroyed by the year of laying low after the Astro World Festival tragedy but then the Utopia briefcase appeared and a new era began Utopia had to be different it couldn't be as big as Astro World Travis Scott just couldn't get away with making something as big or as commercial after the chaos and controversy that had defined the 5 years since Astro World Utopia in many ways was going to be forced to answer for all of that after so much time without an album after so much doubt about whether or not he could deliver in terms of quality after so much controversy and hatred in the news Utopia had to be for the fans it had to be kind of the opposite of AST world not a giant psychedelic pop rap party but something with deeper darker more experimental sounds that could prove to the world that Travis still had it in him creatively and commercially but somehow and I don't really know how Travis Scott not only delivered on that expectation but he also made Utopia one of the most instantly successful rap albums of The Last 5 Years overall Utopia has some beautiful music but also some pretty mid moments but with 19 tracks it was probably never going to be perfect but overall it is again this gigantic musical Journey that finds Travis continuing to evolve not just in his own way but actually pushing the genre forward at the same time it mixes experimental ideas within familiar formats and that's pretty much exactly what Travis needed to make at this point from the Beauty and the introspection of my eyes 1,000 on my feet Stacks spr it on my seat 10,000 on my [Music] eyes to the dark lullaby sounds of I know right now tell me am I still telling you just how I feel right now you say it's just a Dr and I know I know I know I know I know I know I know to the dreamy poetry on parale and I Stand Tall I fall I get up I fall I get up booming Menace of lost forever been lost forever lost on island driven in boat car just bring your girl feel like she both young black [ __ ] worked at the oce so how we for me Utopia has some of the most interesting songs Travis has made in years telekinesis is Heavenly and peaceful I see looking like we [Music] love I can't wait to live in glory and turn while thank God is personal and Grand i w he won't miss lead all his followers praying on the process mind Spirit feel like and sonically Utopia feels a lot like Kanye's da in the same way that dond was it's a little hard to pin down a specific Sonic theme here there are a lot of different musical motifs but for me I can't identify one overarching genre there's some trap some psychedelic some cinematic sounds some gospel sounds some indie some Afro beats a lot of it sounds like yeus some of it sounds like life of Pablo even a bunch of the songs are literally lifted from daa God's country telekinesis thank God these were originally produced and written by and with Kanye for D but again this isn't a meat eating contest and I'm going to be the first person to admit that there are a lot of songs on Utopia I just didn't love mainly the more mainstream sounding songs like meltdown I think Drake's verse is pretty weird I'm not sure why people like it so much like I got a C of this [ __ ] like gol at a qu to six I love a [ __ ] on a regular [ __ ] famous hoes lame but they stay on my dick heard your new join is embarrassing [ __ ] you talk to the cops on some therapist sh circus Maximus I think has some more boring features from sway Lee it's pretty good but I'm not sure it really sounds as cinematic and epic as it should walk walk naturally breathing like always at a s look my w where packed in at the top love with kid Cy just not for me I I really don't like kid Cy after kids see ghosts or even for a while before that I get it I get it I get in love love me love me love me long time I get it I get it I get in love love me love me love me long [Music] time K-pop with Bad Bunny in the weekend it's just it's okay I understand it's meant to be a big commercial hit but I don't think it sounds like one [Music] look out of me girl so overall I think the less commercial songs on Utopia feel a lot more thoughtful and real but that being said Utopia is still a very cohesive cinematic album experience and it basically has no skips if you're playing it front to back no it doesn't have as much of a storyline as Rodeo but it still feels like there are themes to it a lot of it is based around the idea of acceptance and staying steady through life's troubles which of course Travis Scott has had a lot of in the last few years but ultimately Utopia is just another top tier Travis Scott album by Travis Scott standards yeah it got a lot of bad reviews from Pitchfork a lot of people have these familiar criticisms that come up over and over like Travis Scott doesn't write good lyrics he copies other people's Styles he just curates producers and his albums aren't even really his and maybe that's true from one perspective but to me Utopia really embodies what's good about Travis Scott albums and it shows off his true talent because honestly I think his lack of deeper personal substance doesn't really matter all that much a Travis Scott album is and has always been a Blockbuster experience that brings new sounds and ideas to a massively mainstream audience his projects are detailed they're interesting they're memorable in a way that makes them last much longer than any old average trap album and look I'm going to be the first person to admit he doesn't have the greatest lyrics I appreciate great lyrics Travis Scott does not have a lot of them but he's energetic and hungry and his music over the years has come to represent quality Utopia has a great sound that's conventional yet unique and it's exactly what Travis Scott needed to make to make a comeback or even just stay in people's minds after so long the roll out the Deep cuts the Trap bangers the sound that's bright and dark at the same time sometimes thoughtful sometimes aggressive it's exactly the spectacle that it needed to be and Travis Scott being a curator just really isn't a valid criticism if he's putting together albums that are interesting and long lasting like nothing else around what exactly is the problem with him being a curator my only actual criticism is that there should probably be less features honestly I think Drake 21 Savage and future could have been left off this album completely I know they need to be on there for the sake of sales and streams but I think this album would be a lot closer to perfect if those three artists just weren't on it but either way it's honestly crazy that Utopia can be this long and so consistent at the same time it shows that a lot of care went into crafting the project it's a very detailed album and in a way I think it's almost a little more consistent than AST world the track list is just a little bit better and to me there are just a few less forgettable songs but whether or not you Utopia stays in our minds is something we'll find out later as time goes on but for now it seems like it more than lived up to the hype and Travis once again created a standard setting album experience that will only add to his legacy as one of the best trap artists of all time and once again a defining artist of the 2020s as well as the 2010s so what is Travis Scott is he a person a brand an idea to me I think the biggest thing that stands out about him is creativity and always evolving into the next thing across so so many projects so many different mediums Travis Scott always delivers something memorable unique and worth talking about in a lot of ways he surpassed being a rapper and became a cultural icon on his own level I understand you can say it's glazing you can say I'm biased I'm a fan whatever but all good classic timeless music has to get its energy from somewhere you know Kendrick Lamar gets his energy from genius level writing storytelling unique voices Kanye got his energy from the Grand Vision the inspirational themes and in his lyrics The Weekend gets his energy from his perfect vocals all of these people have made amazing modern classic albums but are any of them the best at everything I think the answer is no because they do what they do best and they use their strengths to their advantage so I don't think it's necessarily fair to say that Travis Scott isn't deep so he can't make a classic because for Travis Scott his music is good because of the Vibes he curates the album experience the Cinematic music the sequencing the memorable projects that become cultural icons every time he drops the way that each and every single one of his albums is a unique musical Journey defined by fresh sounds and recognizable moments his music drives forward it doesn't Linger The sequencing the quality control the creativity it's all top tier no he's not the best rapper no he's not the best Lyricist but no one is the best at everything Travis Scott has jumped from the hungry distorted wild sound of days before Rodeo to the gritty cinematic sound of rodeo to the dark drugged out sound of birds to the psychedelic Odyssey of astal world to the gripping eclectic imaginative Utopia each and every one of his albums represents a unique era not just in his music but in pop culture as a whole and when you put them together they paint a picture of a successful Mission an artist who became a pop Icon by playing to his strengths because Travis Scott started his journey as an underdog rapper from Houston Texas he was sleeping on couches spending his last dollar to look for the next opportunity playing tiny venues with even smaller audiences over years ago and he took it all the way to the biggest stages in the entire world from his albums to his merch to his brand deals creating some of the biggest commercial impacts of any artist alive all without ever losing his commitment to Quality a lot of these artists have started to fall off you know all these discussions about how artists just aren't trying anymore people like Drake ASAP Rocky Kanye these are Travis Scott's peers but a lot of them have just stopped being creative but Travis Scott has done all of that without ever losing his commitment to Quality every time he drops it's a new era it's a new experience it's always surprising always energetic and it's always creative but Travis Scott is still inventing new sounds and ideas and he predicted it himself all the way back in 2015 at the beginning of rodeo when he was just beginning to craft his sound at the end of the album's intro he said world the world we going to Ru the world the flame says let your ambition carry you and with that idea truly coming full circle with Travis Scott going on to create some of the best if not the best pop rap of the Trap era becoming a true pop culture icon with his brand going not just into music but fashion gaming film and food there are just so many artists nowadays who come and go people who see music as a business opportunity and don't have the vision to leave a mark for more than a few years but Travis Scott has a different much more inspiring and motivating story through all the ups and downs fighting past his humble beginnings with the hunger to reach his goals and make an impact no matter what you think of his music or his rapping or his Persona there's no arguing that he is the biggest trap artist of all time and he's created a massively successful catalog of albums that appeal both to Dedicated fans and the general public and none of that would be possible without his vision and his ideas the story of Travis Scott is a reminder that hard work dedication hunger commitment that's what propels you through anything in life that's what makes your dreams come true and pretty soon with Travis going on tour for the first time in years everyone who knows Travis Scott knows that his concerts are all about raging and getting wild and crazy he's really one of the most chaotic performers around today from getting arrested for yelling at his fans to break down barriers and Rush the stage to laala paloa 2015 where his set got cut short because he started giving the middle finger to the security guards and yelling we want rage we want rage so part of the fun of a Travis Scott show has always been just how unhinged and out of control they can be but Travis isn't the first artist who built a Persona around crazy concerts where anything can happen people like GG Allen Hannah trash they're the original masters of the art of violent concerts and they've done all sorts of crazy things over the years like crashing bulldozers into the stage or even worse that's why I think you'll really love danger music my new video where I explore the Dark Side of live music telling some truly insane stories about the most wild and violent music ever made and its only available on nebula nebula is where you can find tons of exclusive volksgeist videos literally hours of content that isn't available anywhere else because I created nebula with other creators as a big group project to take control of our creativity we specifically designed nebula as a platform and a company to be a place where we can make our best content possible without having to worry about all the overarching factors that make YouTube videos over edited watered down or just plain boring I've struggled for years with YouTube Just allowing record labels to take my revenue for videos to the point where I had to fun fundamentally make my videos worse so they wouldn't be taken down even though I wasn't breaking any rules whatsoever and that's why nebula is so important to me nebula is the place I can put my best work like my two classes where I deep dive into my process for writing stories making animations filming lighting and danger music my brand new original talking about the violent history of live music so if you're interested in supporting my mission to make the best musical documentaries on the entire internet you can get nebula for an extremely low price if you buy a Year's membership for just $30 you're only paying $2.50 a month but you can also sign up monthly for $4 a month so support my journey to make the best online documentaries And subscribe to the streaming service that I myself am building and in return you get my very best content in its purest form ever so go to nebula.com I'm Phillip this is volksgeist and once again thank you so much for the support