The dreamlike instrumental relies on synth bass to ground the airy melody underneath choppy hi-hats and deep 808s. The song is freeing and fun, banking as much on bounce and catchiness as it does on coherence. He reflects on his monumental success as if he looked in the mirror that morning and saw a star for the first time - there’s a wondrous element to the way he raps about wealth.
The 16th track on ASTROWORLD isn’t Travis Scott’s most popular song, nor is it his most dynamic or experimental, but it’s his best one a flawless example of the modern sound that he brought to rap’s table. Here are the 15 best Travis Scott songs of all time. While I’ll admit I’m not the biggest Travis Scott fan, I went back and listened through every album to create a list of limited features honoring his ingenuity, energy, and influence. Regardless, he’s an artist whose impact has been felt throughout pop culture, and his boundary breaking brand deals with McDonald’s, PlayStation, (the Kardashians), and Nike have increased his celebrity tenfold. His raging energy and attitude make him feel culturally significant - these traits are a part of his artistry that add to the listening experience.Īs a prime overrated/underrated debate topic, Travis has had his fair share of misses and wears his Kanye and Kid Cudi influences a bit too on his sleeve sometimes. However, if there is any rapper with a true rockstar aura, it’s Travis, and one look at a live performance makes it easy to understand why. He’s known as one of the rap’s greatest showmen, and his willingness to lean into experimentation garnered him the label “rockstar” well before Lil Uzi Vert, Playboi Carti, and the entire Soundcloud rap scene co-opted that term and stripped it of its dwindling meaning. The elements of his sound that define him can’t be attributed to anyone but Travis himself, and in this sense, he’s a stylistic genius.īut what makes Travis Scott such a divisive figure in hip-hop has as much to do with his persona as it does his influential sound.
At first listen, one might attribute these characteristics to the work of an engineer, but as tempting as that may be for the cynics and non-believers, it’s simply not realistic. The autotune, the ad-libs, the crisp, overly compressed, saturated vocals. No other artist has mixed alternative hip-hop, trap, and psychedelia as effectively as Travis, and not many artists have created a sonic identity so recognizable.