Music / Travis Scott

It's lit!

Influences: Björk, Portishead, Bon Iver, The Fray, Little Dragon, Kid Cudi, M.I.A., The Sex Pistols, Gym Class Heroes, Kanye West, Toro y Moi, Tame Impala, T.I., Radiohead, Future, Chief Keef, Tyler, the Creator, DJ Screw, Three 6 Mafia

Nine light-years away, just outside of the Kepler solar system, we find ourselves consumed and utterly mesmerized with a story of a young rebel against the system refusing to conform or comply to the ways of authority. He chose the mood of "Fuck this shit." At that moment, the one known as Jacques turned to Scott, chose to jump off his mama porch, leading the stampede of lost souls in the middle of their metamorphosis, not quite through with their journey. Ain't made it to wherever the fuck they gon' be in life, but wherever it is, it's better than here, so fuck you, and fuck this.

—Opening Narration of Rodeo, courtesy of T.I.

Jacques Bermon Webster II (born April 30, 1991), better known as Travis Scott, is an American rapper from Houston, Texas, signed to Kanye West's label G.O.O.D. Music and T.I.'s label Grand Hustle Records.

He's known for his highly detailed, psychedelic trap production, often making use of phasing, delays, and lo-fi/ambient textures, with the two main staples of his sound being his idiosyncratic use of Auto-Tune and his frequent mentions of drugs, mostly codeine and marijuana.

Since 2017, he's been dating socialite and businesswoman Kylie Jenner, with whom he has two children, Stormi Webster (born 2018) and Aire Webster (born 2022).

On November 5, 2021, during a performance at Astroworld (an annual Houston-based music festival which Scott created and ran, named after his album of the same name), ten people died of a crowd crush. Hundreds more were injured. As a result, Scott has become a highly controversial figure in the music industry, with many pointing to his own poor planning and encouragement of reckless behavior as key factors in the disaster.

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Discography:

• Owl Pharaoh (mixtape; 2013)
• Days Before Rodeo (mixtape; 2014)
• Rodeo (album; 2015)
• Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight (album; 2016)
• Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho (with Quavo, under the name Huncho Jack) (album; 2017)
• ASTROWORLD (album; 2018)
• JackBoys (with artists on his Cactus Jack record label) (album; 2019)
• Utopia (album; 2023)

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Birds in the Tropes Sing McKnight:

• A God Am I: Defied in "Stop Trying to Be God", where Travis denounces the god complexes that various celebrities have and insists on them being loyal to those who are closest to them.
• Album Title Drop:
  • Rodeo is mentioned in the last line of "Apple Pie".
  • Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight gets its title from a line in "pick up the phone." However, the line is actually "Birds in the Trap Sing Brian McKnight" ^note And it's from Quavo's verse, oddly enough.
  • ASTROWORLD gets namedropped on "STARGAZING", "CAROUSEL", and the single "Watch".
• All Caps: How the titles of ASTROWORLD and its songs are ideally formatted.
• Auto-Tune: A huge element of Travis' style such that he's routinely praised for exhibiting the artistic merit in an oft-derided musical tool.
• Drugs Are Good: One of his biggest hits ("Antidote") is about hotboxing.
• Epic Rocking: "3500" crosses seven and a half minutes, and the beat doesn't switch until 6:22.
• Genre Roulette: While Travis' go-to sound is definitely psychedelic-infused trap music, he has ventured into acoustic ballads, psychedelic rock, and modern R&B.
• Heterosexual Life-Partner: With Quavo, as explained in their song, "Eye 2 Eye".
• Identical Stranger: Downplayed; his resemblance to A$AP Rocky largely depends upon French braids, but they both make trap music with a trippy edge and can become upset if mistaken for one another.
• Melodic Rap: Thanks to his frequent experimentation with Auto-Tune's effects, Scott's melodic flow actually morphs and changes often, instead of just being used as a gimmick.
• Mood Whiplash: Travis is fond of switching the beat on his songs. One of the best examples comes from "Sicko Mode," where he uses three different beats AND a breakdown section within five minutes.
• Pungeon Master: Sometimes fancies himself as such. However, when one of your bars is calling white girls snow bunnies like it's "Christmas-Easter..."
• Sampling:
  • "SICKO MODE" samples "Victory Flow" by Big Hawk, along with adding in vocal cuts from both "Gimme the Loot" by The Notorious B.I.G. and "I Wanna Rock" by Uncle Luke. As a result, the song credits 30 different writers^note this is partly because the songs it samples themselves use samples, meaning that among those writers are Busta Rhymes, the members of A Tribe Called Quest and 70s disco group KC and the Sunshine Band.
  • "CAROUSEL" is based around a vocal chant loop from the end of "The New Style" by The Beastie Boys.
  • "Don't Play" is based on a vocal sample of "Money" by The 1975, crediting them as a featured artist.
  • "5% TINT" takes its main riff from "Cell Therapy" by Goodie Mob.
  • "NO BYSTANDERS" is based around a string sample from the intro of "Joga" by Björk.
  • "Mamacita" is built around the main riff from "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" by Bobby Bland.
• Shout-Out:
  • Likes to reference Houston and Houston rappers like Bun B of UGK.
    • Particularly notable is ASTROWORLD, which takes its name from the defunct Houston amusement park Six Flags AstroWorld. Scott's Astroworld Festival also took place at NRG Park, adjacent to the park's former site.
  • "...jumpin up, feel like I'm Moby."
• Soprano and Gravel:
  • Provides the gravel to The Weeknd's soprano whenever they collaborate.
  • To a lesser extent, him with Young Thug or Quavo, or his Auto-Tune voice with his rapping voice.
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: Since his music tends to be focused more on his autotuned singing, his rapping or other peoples' rap verses have this effect.