Travis Scott [EDIT]

One Liner: Auto-Tuned/half-sung Houston rapper with an attitude problem
Wikipedia Genre: Hip hop, trap, R&B
Home: Houston

Poster Position: 1
Day: Sunday at 6:00
Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  I do not like Travis Scott.  Just going to get that out of the way right away.  I'm amazed at the consistent love for this guy, but entirely mediocre rapper with forgettable lyrics.  I will not deny that "Antidote" is pretty cool and makes me feel tough, and that "goosebumps" is catchy, but the vast majority of his music is jenky.  Here is the latter, which crushes all his other songs at 427 MILLION streams.

Yeah, catchy chorus (that I hear my kid doing musical.ly videos to all the time) but its just autotuned popcorn.  Nothing to it.  Also, he has a propensity to yell out stupid filler phrases - like "ITS LIT!" or "YAAAH!" - to fill up spaces in his raps.

Interestingly, Travis Scott is a stage name.  His real name is Jacques Webster.  Why in the world do you change up that name?  Travis Scott is so generic, man.  You'd definitely expect that there are more people in the world already using that name, versus Jacques Webster.  I wonder what the thinking was there?  Ah, well here is the story.  He had an uncle named Travis, whose nickname was Scott (?!?!?), and he admired that dude, so he chose the moniker to honor uncle Trav.  I think his original name is way cooler.  Also of interest from that article, this dude is hooked up with one of the Kardashians and had a kid with her.  Weird.

My favorite track he has is one I found through a really random anecdote.  And I might not even have it right, but in my memory, I read an article that was talking about NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, saying that he stepped out of a car to the sounds of "Antidote," which made me go look it up, and although it is (like Scott's other raps) entirely devoid of any sort of message or story or well-written rhymes, it kind of bangs.

That tune has been a constant in my Popcorn Rap playlist for a while, despite the heavy autotuning and the lack of anything useful, but I don't know how many random times I sing the bit about the threepeat in my mind.  I'm so tough...

On top of the music, you have to understand that Scott is apparently also an asshole.  I'm actually a little shocked that concert promoters haven't blackballed the guy.  He was arrested for inciting a riot at an Arkansas show.  Arrested when he encouraged fans to jump the barricades at his Lollapalooza show (which ended after 5 minutes).  He tweeted out a lot of hate for certain rappers and then ended up signed on their labels or doing collaborations with them later (and then tried to delete away those old tweets).  He encouraged people to jump from a second floor balcony onto the crowd below (and some idiot jumped from the third story and was injured).  Chews people out (publicly) at the show for being on their phone.  I feel like I recall him doing something crappy at a SXSW show recently as well, but I can't find details on the Internet right now.  You would think that the C3 people who book Lolla and ACL would have said hell no about this guy for future shows.  You would definitely think that the security guys hate his guts.  And instead, they put him up on the top of the poster...

While looking for those links up above, I found a discussion on Genius about why Travis Scott sucks.  The guy on there calls this type of rap "microwave" rap because it has no nutrients.  And one of the other commenters made a good point, that "Plus, everybody ain’t trying to listen to conscious shit 24/7. [People] need party music and music that talks about shit without being ultra deep like Kendrick all the time. Besides his production is good af."  I can get on board with that - sometimes you just want party music, and this is that.

Many of the mixtapes that people talk about are not available on Spotify, so I can only tell you about 2015's Rodeo, 2016's Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight (huh?), and 2017's Quavo collaboration called Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho.  I mean, if you thought he was bad on his own, then just add a third of the garbage Migos to the tracks, and you're left with truly bad stuff.  I just can't even listen to that album.  Which is too bad - imagine a smart rapper like Kendrick or Common of even goofy ass Lil Wayne using those very tight beats to put down good raps.  Here is the top song from that Jack Huncho album, called "Saint."

Again, mildly entertaining beat, entirely forgettable lyrics about nothing at all.

His explanation for the title of that second album is almost confusing as the title itself.  

"My next album, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight is basically about all my friends and growing up here [in Missouri City]. I'm not saying that it's a trap -- we not in the fucking projects but it's like a social trap. It's a social connection trap from what you want to do and how you want to express yourself. I feel like everyone just gets constricted by their parents or just, life."

Uhhhhhh.  That doesn't explain anything about the album name.  Like, at all.  What is "McKnight?"  What are the "birds?"  WTF?  Is that the problem for this guy?  Is his brain just broken so he can't help but yell "Its LIT!" in the middle of other non-sequiturs?  How weird.  

I won't go see this dude.  Even though I might need some party music in my life, there is bound to be something better than him out there in the world.

[EDIT 8/13/18]  He put out a new album, which has two great attributes.  First, it is named ASTROWORLD, which makes me nostalgic for good times in Houston at both Astroworld and Waterworld (and, quite frankly, that Hannah Barbera Land up in North Houston as well, that place ruled).  Second, it knocked Drake's stupid ass new album off the top of the charts.  The more important attribute, which I hoped this album would possess, is actual good music.  Not here.  Nothing on here tastes like a hit, and even though the album was immediately streamed millions of times (in ten days, Spotify shows 686 million streams for these songs, which is amazing).  The top track, "SICKO MODE" features Drake, because of course it does.

That track, like several of them on this album, does a weird thing by transitioning beats at random points.  I wonder why they choose to change up the track like that - its like you get into the groove of one beat and then they curveball it and you get twisted.  I do like the tiny samples of B.I.G. and 2Live Crew.  But yeah, this isn't any better than the old garbage I reviewed up above.