Travis Scott is an American rapper and songwriter. Scott is most known for his experimental style of rap and the production in his songs. He dropped his long-awaited album “Utopia” this past summer after a five year hiatus from his last album.
The rapper nicknamed La Flame dropped his first album “Owl Pharaoh” back in 2013 and soon followed that up with “Drugs You Should Try It” in 2014. Scott uses his experimental music to draw in listeners as he takes inspiration from rappers such as Kid Cudi and Kanye West. Cudi is a huge influence in his style of rap. Cudi’s real name, Scott Mescudi, is the reason that Scott’s stage name is what it is. Travis comes from his uncle and Scott comes from Kid Cudi. It’s safe to say that Cudi inspires more than just his music. However, Scott is best known for his hit album “Rodeo” which features artists such as Kanye West, The Weeknd and Future.
Scott’s last album “Astroworld,” which dropped in 2018, was a huge success. “SICKO MODE” featuring Drake went #1 on the charts, which was the rapper’s first #1 hit of many. Astroworld was a huge deal for Scott because the album was inspired by an amusement park that was located in Houston when he was growing up. It was unfortunately torn down, so Scott wanted to revive the feeling he had with the amusement park. All of this success came to a sudden halt in 2021 when Scott held the Astroworld Festival. This concert saw 10 people lose their lives and plenty of others injured or hospitalized. This had a huge effect on Scott because he was sued and this made him a public enemy for a lot of people, which obviously took a huge mental toll on the rapper. This incident is the reason that Scott took so long to release his long awaited grammy nominated album “Utopia.”
Scott called the album “Utopia” because he tagged the quote “Utopia is wherever you are” to give his fans the satisfaction of choosing how they feel while listening to the album. He believed that everyone has a different utopia (journey/destination), and they deserve to experience that. In an interview with The Billboard, Scott stated, “Utopia is something that people feel is so far-fetched and out of reach, some perfect state of mind. But you create it yourself. There are people who achieve Utopia every day. They may not be the richest people with the dopest cribs, but it’s a utopia wherever they are, and that’s the most you can have. With every album I live in these worlds in my mind — I’m trying to show people experiences where utopian things can exist, and you can enjoy yourself and have a good time. They can create energy that spews out magical things — new cures, new buildings, new avenues for people to move forward. People need to see that Utopia is real.” This demonstrates Scott’s genius when creating his album and mainly his determination to give the fans what they want.
Utopia is nothing short of fantastic, and it opens up with a bang with the intro track “HYAENA,”which samples plenty of old music and really sets the tone for the album. The album doesn’t skip a beat with great songs all the way through. The album consists of plenty of amazing samples from artists, such as Teezo Touchdown on “MODERN JAM,” Westside Gunn on “LOST FOREVER,” and SZA on “TELEKINESIS” and that’s not even half of the great features on this album. This album really saw Scott go back to his old grimy, experimental music from albums like “Rodeo” and “Owl Pharaoh.” Scott returned to music with an amazing comeback album and the favorite to win rap album of the year at the GRAMMYs this year. This is a huge deal for the rapper because many believe that his last album was robbed at the GRAMMYs and given to an undeserving winner.
Everything Travis does is unique and different from his peers. Scott released a movie titled “CIRCUS MAXIMUS” to tag along with the release of the album. This movie had different versions of a few songs that were on the album and even saw some other artists and famous people make cameos such as Sheck Wes and Rick Rubin, who helped Scott out tremendously with his album. Everytime Scott drops music, his goal is to do something that hasn’t been done before and shock the world. He really showed the world that he wasn’t finished when everyone was doubting and disliking him for something that wasn’t completely his fault.
All things considered, this album is nothing short of spectacular and truly is an amazing comeback album for the artist. This album deserves a 4.5/5 star rating as the album is amazing but comes up just short in his discography as his best album.
