My Time in ASTROWORLD
ASTROWORLD by Travis Scott (originally written 8/10/18)
Travis Scott comes from a long line of Kanye West proteges, many of which let their mentor’s influence shine in their music. Other than the tortured, inconsistent Kid Cudi, who until this year’s legendary comeback KIDS SEE GHOSTS, was slowly fading into mediocrity, Travis Scott is one of the few of West’s GOOD Music affiliates who forge their own sound, their own aesthetic, that can stand the test of time. Travis Scott seems to be hellbent on creating the soundtrack of the young “trap” generation, while pushing to elevate the trap rap genre beyond rattling high-hats, slapping snare drums, triple flows, drug references and what less conscious listeners refer to as “mumble rap”. A task that Scott has for the most part, accomplished since his breakout in 2013, with the hard-hitting, noisy, bass heavy Owl Pharaoh. The 2014 release of Days Before Rodeo, a mixtape with album tier production and features, truly placed young LaFlame’s music into the spotlight. If Owl Pharaoh was the moshpit soundtrack, then DBR was the ride to the concert, the moshpit and the Uber home. A bouquet of spacey reverb, with a wide of array of sonic blending, with lyrics . Songs like “Mamacita” and “Zombies” threw all the heavy, Yeezus level bass and distortion, while other tracks like “Drugs; You Should Try It” and “SkyFall” brought the psychedelic, moody production and lo-fi autotuned vocals. Constant energy and constant contrast highlighted by that energy. This formula was continued on his debut studio release Rodeo, a project many consider his zenith, with some of his biggest hits like “Antidote” reside.
Experimentation and energy allowed his fans to look beyond the less creative aspects of his music, aspects that sometimes make the trap genre stale (see rattling high hats). This was the case until his Rodeo follow-up, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, an album so underwhelming, so lazy, so one dimensional, it left me wondering if he had fallen victim to “peak trap”. His collaboration with Quavo of Migos, Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho, didn’t exactly redeem the missed mark of BITSM¸ but Cactus Jack hinted that he was onto something. For almost two years, Scott teased his biggest project to date AstroWorld. Named after the Six Flags theme park he frequented as a child, AstroWorld was to put it simply, hyped. The lead single, “Butterfly Effect” was release over a year before the album, and Scott himself went through various delays trying to complete his brainchild. Exactly what caused these delays, can’t be certain, but after almost two years of wait and controversies, some of which surfaced days before the release, like the questionable removing of a trans model from the album art; Astroworld had to be worth it.
And it was. On this project, Travis Scott takes all his individual charm and aesthetic, and takes the listener on a trip. I expected this album to be more conceptual, as Travis Scott himself said in a GQ interview: “They tore down AstroWorld to build more apartment space. That’s what it’s going to sound like, like taking an amusement park away from kids. We want it back. We want the building back. That’s why I’m doing it. It took the fun out of the city”. Houston is a city with a deep musical history, Travis Scott being a drop in the purple ocean of influential Houston musicians. Rodeo was named after the fame Texan pastime, and Scott always intended AstroWorld to be an extension of that Texan party sound. “I’m just finishing the saga I started on my first album. This is supposed to be my second album. I had to go quick, because like I said, I had all these ideas, I just had to get off real quick, but now I’m finally back home with AstroWorld.” Everything that made Travis Scott himself is present in this hour-long trip. The word trip has two meanings in the sense: a trip to this world LaFlame “straight up” brought to life, and a literal psychedelic trip.
The opener, “STARGAZING” literally starts with a refrain “rolling rolling got me stargazing, psychedellies got me going crazy”. Psychedelics seem to influence a variety of tracks, as each track seemingly blends into one another. High pitch pianos add a sense of mysticism and transcendence, as if the listener is slowly ascending into the astral plane. This keeps the listener in a constant state of motion and attention, like the glitzy sensory overload of an amusement park. The opener also includes the first of many beat switches present throughout the project. Each song is literally a different ride, a different attraction, full of surprises and thrills, that keep that inner child saying “let’s go again, again”. “STARGAZING” serves as the first ride, with an actual roller coaster sampled right before the beat switches into a far more aggressive, angry laFlame spitting some of his most aggressive bars yet. “It ain’t no mosh pit if they aint no injuries” makes the intention of Scott’s music crystal clear: a complete submission to pleasure, with little care for the consequences.
The next two tracks “CAROUSEL” and “SICKO MODE” both contain two of the biggest featured attractions, Frank Ocean and Drake. Scott has always used his features best qualities, a positive that continued onto AstroWorld. “CAROUSEL” is a exhilirating, relaxing, alt-R&B and trap, with Travis rapping over light horns and pianos that sound like an actual carousel, gentle bobbing up and down on your eardrums. Frank Ocean only adds to the jovial nature of the song, with his trademark falsetto reaching deep into the listener’s nerves. “SICKO MODE” is the most insane ride in ASTROWORLD, with 3 beat switches, and some of the best chemistry on the album. Drake’s verses a fraught with pop rap tropes, that contrast Scott’s depraved unexpected bars, over a heavily distorted bass lead. Drake raps over a Drake-type beat, which means over a average trap beat. Drake also tries to imitate Travis’s flow, with the triplets and adlibs, but pales in comparison to the energy Scott delivers when he interjects on the final beat switch.
“RIP SCREW” and the following “STOP TRYING TO BE GOD” bring the listener to a more personal space in Cactus Jack’s mind, as “RIP SCREW” is a moody, leaned-out tribute to the legendary DJ Screw, pioneer of the “chop-and-screwed” production style, an iconic Houston sound. The track is in fact, a screwed up mish mosh of all of Travis’s production style, slowed down, with autotuned lyrics riddled with Houston slang. While I do believe this is a deeply personal track for Travis, it simply doesn’t interest me like some of the other slowed down moments, as the song slogs and gets boring at around the 3-minute mark, with over a minute of crooning left. But, what “RIP SCREW” was missing in variety, “STOP TRYING TO BE GOD” excelled. With live, organic instrumentals, over layers of harmonies conducted by Kid Cudi and James Blake. Every amusement park has their grand attraction, their Kingda Ka, the fastest meanest coaster; “No Bystanders” is the main attraction. Little compares to the base-thumping, turn-to-the-max production on this track. With Juice WRLD’s vocals inching towards the drop, it’s truly an experience when layers of FUCK THE CLUB UP and BITCH rain down. I don’t want to go song-for-song on this album, as each song has its own unique flavor to it. I do want to talk about COFFEE BEAN however. The most mellow track, it sounds like the long ride home from ASTROWORLD. A break from the loops, and the sugar, and the adrenaline. In a sense, a return to reality.
ASTROWORLD is more than a collection of trap tracks; it is a sonic amusement park, lead by an always lit mascot. As a concept album, one truly appreciates the artistry of Travis Scott, and I believe this is his best work to date.
