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Sam Walsh Follow

Aug 19, 2018 · 7 min read

After a two year wait, Travis Scott 2nally released ASTROWORLD on August
3rd. The album’s delays had become a joke in themselves. However, upon
release, the album brought Travis acclaim he had never before received. Up
until this release, Scott’s album discography consisted of Rodeo and Birds in
the Trap Sing McKnight, albums that earned more pro2t than critical praise.
He also had become a staple feature artists, adding his vocals to hit after hit.
So how did Scott reach his own peak of critical and commercial success on
ASTROWORLD? It was just a matter of him taking his time.

It would be easy to describe Scott’s career arc as linear, but that would be a
bit unfair. When he released his 2rst mixtape, Owl Pharaoh, he was already
signed to Kanye West’s GOOD Music. Because of his long time connection to
West, many listeners think of him as a GOOD Music artists and attribute his
rise in popularity to that claim. This claim is true, partially. Scott is actually
only signed to GOOD as a producer, under the “Very GOOD beats” imprint.
This gets a bit confusing as Scott rarely ever has solo production credits on
others’ songs, and only a few on his own. This means that his albums are not
released through GOOD Music and never have been, they have always been
released by Grand Hustle records.

Grand Hustle is a label led by Atlanta legend T.I. Scott and T.I.’s relationship
is not as publicized as his and Kanye’s (it’s a Kardashian-less bromance), but
T.I. did narrate Rodeo and had executive producer credits on Scott’s 2rst two
albums. Before I move on and, and for the sake of completion, I’ll mention
that Scott also has a major-label deal with EPIC records and now has his
own label imprint, Cactus Jack records.

Back to Scott’s rise. In 2015, after gaining popularity through two mixtape
releases, Scott released his debut album, Rodeo. The album hit number
three on the Billboard album chart and number one on the rap chart.
Singles 3500 and Antidote hit the Billboard Hot 100 with the latter reaching
number 16, his highest charting single at the time. While the album wasn’t
beloved by critics, it marked the start of Scott’s mainstream success and
helped create the cult fan base he has today.

Scott’s path became a bit more jagged after Rodeo. After his 2rst big taste of
success, the stakes were even higher for his sophomore e]ort. In May 2016,
he announced ASTROWORLD. That may seem confusing, as there were two
albums before this month’s release. When Birds in the Trap was released in
September, it seemed to be simply an appetizer for his next project. Fans
didn’t see it that way though, as the album was his 2rst number one. The
album came with singles Pick Up the Phone and Goosebumps. Even with
features from Young Thug, Quavo and Kendrick Lamar, none of these songs
reached the same success as Rodeo’s Antidote (Goosebumps was a weird case
because of its longevity, the song ended up being 4x platinum, his best
certi2cation edging out Antidote’s 3x platinum). He followed up this album
with his biggest tour yet, the Bird’s Eye View tour (featuring a viral
performance of him performing Goosebumps 14 times in a row) and shortly
after opened for Kendrick Lamar on the DAMN. tour. Again, it seemed that
Travis’ popularity had peaked.

2017 seemed to be the year for ASTROWORLD, the entrée. It seemed this
way mostly because Scott said so in concert. Instead, he decided to get
another drink. After hype that lasted most of the year, Scott released a
collaborative album with Migos’ Quavo, Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho. The
album hit number three on the album charts and had six of its 13 songs in
the Hot 100. While almost charting half the album is impressive, none of
the songs cracked the top 60. The album also marked his third e]ort in a
row that was widely dismissed by critics.

At this time, Scott also was making a name for himself through features.
“Feat. Travis Scott” was a common phrase on the hot 100. He featured on
Drake’s Portland in 2017, which brought his highest placement on the Hot
100 to that point and his 2rst top 10 appearance. He also had notable
features on Miguel’s Sky Walker (#29) and SZA’s Love Galore (2x platinum).
He also had a child with Kylie Jenner at this time, a fact that helped increase
his relevancy.

While his popularity was at an all-time high, his artistry seemed to stagnate.
As I mentioned before, his albums were widely dismissed by critics, and he
didn’t seem to be moving away from the “Travis Scott sound”. The sound is
mostly made up of heavy auto tune and beats driven by percussion.
Financially, there was no need for him to shift. Scott was more successful
than ever, and his “sound” made him increasingly desirable to be included
on others’ tracks (I use the term “sound” instead of production as it is
unclear how much he adds to the production of his and others’ tracks).

Finally, after a two year wait, Scott released ASTROWORLD. Based on his
recent output (and the disappointing ButterOy EPect), the album seemed to
have no way to live up its expectations. It surpassed them. ASTROWORLD
was Scott’s 2rst critical success, earning acclaim from The Independent,
Exclaim, and HipHopDX among others. He brought in almost the entire hip
hop industry to help work on the project, and received his best Billboard
numbers yet. He held the #1 album in four di]erent countries upon release
and charqted his 2rst top 10 singles as a lead artist (SICKO MODE and
STARGAZING). Not only that, all 17 songs on the album reached the
Billboard Hot 100 with 10 in the top 40.

It’s rare that artists can hit this dual peak, so how did Scott do it? He took
his time. Earlier in the article, I wrote in depth about Scott’s career timeline,
this was partially for context, but it was also to highlight the projects
between the announcement of ASTROWORLD and its release. From research
on the recording process, it seems like Scott had been working on
ASTROWORLD since before Birds’ release. While he was still taking his time
on creating his magnum opus, he kept releasing music to keep fans happy.
His fame continued to grow during this time, and he developed more
resources and connections to contribute to his masterpiece. Scott essentially
released multiple B-Side albums before the album actually released. Sure,
he had to sacri2ce some tracks that probably would’ve boosted
ASTROWORLD even more (Goosebumps, Pick Up the Phone) but it all worked
out in the end.

This is an interesting middling strategy compared to what other artists are

doing. Take Drake for example, his popularity and relevance are each
incredibly important to his music. He keeps that relevancy by putting out an
album every year. This is an exhausting (especially when they’re over 20
songs) and nearly impossible feat to achieve, luckily Drake has the very best
people in the music industry to help him do that. If one was to pick out 2ve
or so songs from each of Drake’s last three albums, and combine them into
one album, it would be his best work. Can Drake a]ord to wait and accrue
songs like that? Based on his past three years, he and his team must think
not.

Let’s take the opposite, Frank Ocean. Ocean took those three years and then
some to release Blonde. He was berated for it until then album was
eventually released. Hell, he’s starting to get jac for it again two years later.
Blonde is an artistically impressive work that needed time and patience to
create. He released a B-sides album alongside Blonde with Endless. Post-
Blonde he decided to release those B-Sides as individual singles, which
seemed to appease fans more than waiting for a full album. This model has
been followed by his Odd Future colleague, Tyler, the Creator, who took his
time to release Flower Boy, his best work. Since the release he has been
dropping spare songs and verses to comfort fans.

Waiting is a dangerous thing to do in today’s society of music consumption.

With instant access to any music necessary, our attention spans have grown
shorter. If an artist waits to release music, it better be good, or they could be
written o] entirely. The creative process is not rewarded by this consumer
model. I referred to subpar songs above as “B-Sides”, this is not an
incredibly accurate term. That being said, artists are going to make bad
songs, it’s a fact of recording. Artists record hundreds of songs a year, and its
nearly impossible for them all to be good (or 2nished). However, if artists
only released good songs, we’d have a scarcity of music. It’s a 2ne line, and
that’s what makes it interesting to see Scott 2nd a new way to get those
songs out there, while still buying time for himself to release his best work.

Hip Hop Music Streaming Travis Scott Art

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Sam Walsh Follow

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