You wouldn’t believe it looking at his success today, however eight years ago Travis Scott was a university drop out, kicked out of his parents house and financially cut off, he was hustling mixtapes in LA, sleeping in his friends’ cars, and doing everything in his power to make his music dreams a reality. On his meteoric ascent from couch-surfer to global icon we review some of Travis Scott’s most defining moments in his career so far, starting from his earliest and humblest points of inspiration and ambition.
A THREE YEAR OLD DRUMMER: Piano Players Don't Get Bitches?
Travis was not always Travis Scott, he was born Jacques/Jack Webster, which would later go on to inspire his nickname Cactus Jack as well as the title of Travis’ record label, Cactus Jack Records. The rapper grew up in Houston, Texas and with an abundance of musical influence; his grandfather was a professional jazz composer, his uncle Travis played bass (and inspired his grandson’s stage name) and his father played the drums and gifted him his first drum set when he was three. Travis also went on to learn the piano but quit shortly after because, as he told Complex Magazine, ‘it wasn’t getting no bitches’.
The drum set however translated easily into producing beats of his own when the time came, and gave Travis that competitive edge that would be so helpful later on in his career.
Pictured from left to right, Travis’ mother, sister Jordan, Brother Marcus, Travis and father
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS: High School Producer
In high school Travis started using production software Logic, greatly influenced by Kanye West and specifically inspired by his studio album, The College Dropout. Another creative role model during these years was Pursuit Of Happiness star Kid Cudi, whose first name Scott was adopted in tribute within Travis’ stage name. A lady named Sarah Romero also played a part, and helped nurture Travis in his high school days as his school counsellor.
After many years the two reunite in the video below where Travis credits her responsible for saving his life in high school.
EARLY MIXTAPES: The Graduates & The Class Mates
In 2008 when Travis was 16 he formed a rap group with friend Chris Holloway and released a self-titled EP, The Graduates, which was Travis’ first ever published musical project. This, in all honesty, was not his best, and to be fair, it was his first time. He did quite sweetly pay homage to his two idols Kanye and Cudi however by remixing two of their songs, Kanye’s Flashing Lights and Kid Cudi’s Day ‘N’ Night. After The Graduates he went on to form The Classmates with his real life classmate OG Chess and released four mixtapes together, B.A.P.E, Buddy Rich, The Classmates (EP) and Cruis’n USA. Whilst maybe not the most advanced sound to date, these early mixtapes serve as a reminder of how far Travis’ production has come, a stark comparison to the refined sound it is today, and that even underneath the Autotune in more recent works, he is still a talented and skilled rapper at his core.
MEETING T.I. AND KANYE WEST: The Song That Changed His Life
In 2011 the rapper began working on his debut solo project, Owl Pharaoh. He had searched through the credits on some of Kanye’s albums and found the name of one of his engineers, Anthony Kilhoffer, who he reached out to alongside super producer Mike Dean, sending through a bunch of his work. In 2012, Travis finished recording the track and music video for Lights (Lovesick) below.
Little did he know this would be the song that would catch the attention of rap legend and record executive T.I. At the same time, the Lovesick video was catching the attention of Anthony Kilhoffer, the aforementioned Kanye-affiliated engineer, who went on to become Travis' manager, and ultimately introduced him to Kanye in 2012 when he was signed to G.O.O.D Music. His strength and dedication to networking and leveraging access to the greats meant that by 2013, Travis had scored three separate record deals in the space of just over one year; Epic Records in 2012, G.O.O.D Music in 2012 and lastly T.I.’s label Grand Hustle in 2013, with whom he still publishes his music to this day.
His solo debut Owl Pharaoh was finally released for free in May 2013 in conjunction with Grand Hustle Records.
DEVELOPING HIS SOUND: Days Before Rodeo 2014
Days Before Rodeo, Travis’ second mixtape under his new mentorship, marked his launch towards mainstream recognition. “I wanted to dive more into where I was from, and more of a story of how I came who I am. How Jack Webster became Travis Scott,” he told MTV in a 2015 interview regarding the mixtape. Released in August 2014, Days Before Rodeo featured artists such as Young Thug, Big Sean, Rich Homie Quan, Peewee Longway, Migos and interestingly indie band The 1975; all of which contributed to the exposure of the mixtape, cementing it as his most successful to date. Crowd favourites from the project include tracks Drugs You Should Try It, Mamacita and Skyfall. This project saw Travis slowly but surely begin to define his own individual style and we witness an impressive movement and progression within his production capability, perhaps due to mentorship by producer and engineer Mike Dean.
Rodeo, Travis’ much anticipated and first ever studio album, was released on all platforms in September 2015 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard Rap Album Charts, boasting even more collaborations than previous from the likes of The Weekend, Quavo, Young Thug, Justin Bieber, Schoolboy Q and of course mentor Kanye West.
In his Young Thug and Justin Bieber collaboration Maria I’m Drunk, Travis proves his development, and impresses with a well-practiced ability to embrace and clone another rapper’s style, complimenting Young Thug’s signature sound perfectly.
FIRST #1 ALBUM: Birds in The Trap Sing Mcknight 2016
Following his tour, Travis’ releases his pivotal album Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight, considered by some as among The Best Hip Hop Albums Of The 2010s. The album is centered around memories of being around his friends growing up, and it has a strong underlying nocturnal tone to it. Much like the last two bodies of works, Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight doesn’t concentrate too hard on lyrical finesse or intricate bars. Instead it hones in on a feeling, and tracks such as Through The Late Night evoke a nostalgic memory of driving around town at night, with your friends in the passenger seat, windows rolled down, wind in your hair. Like him or not, Travis Scott can skillfully craft emotive music.
The album scored him his first #1 album on Billboard’s Top 200, and warm- up single Pick Up the Phone was certified double platinum by the RIAA. Due to the unprecedented success of the album, Travis was then offered a publishing deal with Universal Music, who now represent his whole catalogue. Some other memorable highlights from the album are Lose and Goosebumps, the latter in collaboration with all-time great, Kendrick Lamar.
GETTING BACK TO HOUSTON: The Astroworld Projects
In an interview from 2017, Travis told SHOWstudio, “I’m very ambitious. I’m driven to somewhere where there’s architecture, design and a super high level of creativity.” This opportunity came sooner than anticipated, and Travis continues to prove Astroworld was so much more than just an album, it was a vision, an aesthetic, a fantasy land he had created where kids could be unashamedly themselves."
Astroworld used to be an old theme park in Houston, Texas that Travis would go to as a kid and was the location of some of the happiest memories he had growing up. When it shut down in 2005 it was all suddenly just taken away, not only from him, but also from his community which he loved. The album honours his hometown, and is a reminder that regardless of the new-found status - Travis never forgot the city that raised him.
He dedicated the entire project to Houston and this theme park, created an invigorating tour experience for his fans, and eventually recreated the Astroworld experience by bringing an Astroworld Festival in 2018 exclusively back to Houston.
Renowned for his mosh-pit filled audiences since his Rodeo days; his shows have always been characterised by high energy performances and intimate crowd interaction, with Travis never failing to entertain on stage. He has a heart-warming tendency to bring fans on stage with him and make their night, which he explains in an interview with Rolling Stone. “I bring these kids up out of heart, because I know my brother would freak the fuck out if one of his favorite artists invited him up. I’m thinking of Marcus every time.”
JACKBOYS FOREVER: Nurturing Other Artists
In 2017, Travis formed Cactus Jack Records, a medium through which he could take others under his wing and mentor his own collective of recruited talent.
“I want first and foremost to help other artists, launch new names, to provide opportunities," explained Scott in an interview with Numero. "I want to do for them what happened to me, but better. By better I mean no bullshit. No lying to the artists about album release dates or the budgets of videos and albums.”
The roster so far includes Don Toliver, who was introduced on Astroworld’s Can’t Say, long-time friend and DJ Chase B and viral Mo Bamba sensation, Sheck Wes. Both Astroworld and Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho albums were released via Cactus Jack Records. Two years after the label’s birth a more directly influenced product was delivered in 2019 through the album JACKBOYS, a compilation featuring prodigee Don Toliver, Sheck Wes, Offset and regulars Young Thug and Quavo.
The album’s first track and fan favourite Highest In The Room is accompanied by a trippy, colourful and creative video released a couple months prior in October 2019. This was Travis’ first single to debut at #1 on the US Billboard Charts.
2020: Astronomical Fortnite Concert and The Scotts
In recent news, Travis has become the second artist ever (following Marshmello) to create a virtual concert titled The Astronomical Tour inside the wildly popular video game Fortnite, which turned out to be an extraordinary and infinitely imaginative psychedelic experience and a masterclass in innovative game design. The concert attracted a global audience of 12.3 million people, and was according to Fortnite’s latest tweet “an all-time record!’
Within the virtual tour Travis debuted a preview of his new collaboration with long time idol and inspiration Kid Cudi, the first new song from Travis since last month’s feature on hit song, Turks, with fellow producer/rappers NAV and Gunna, and second song released from Kid Cudi since 2016, following the much anticipated drop of Leader Of The Delinquents earlier this month.
The Scotts, which has now been released on all platforms, is the title of both the track and the new super-group and is anticipated to be a warm up to a full feature album by The Scotts at a later date this year, giving the fans something to chew on until then. The Scotts has become the biggest Spotify debut of 2020 so far, breaking records with a whopping 7.45 million streams in just two days.
