Jacques Webster, best known as Travis Scott, (also known by his nickname “La Flame”) is a hip-hop artist and producer signed to G.O.O.D Music and Grand Hustle, who hails from Houston, Texas. Rodeo is Scott’s debut album but he has built a solid fan base. Scott has two previous projects out titled Owl Pharaoh and Days Before Rodeo. However, Rodeo is a more sophisticated and full-sounding project.
Travis Scott first came to the recognition of the public in correlation to his contributions on G.O.O.D. Music projects such as Cruel Winter and most notably Yeezus. Because of his talent shown as a producer on these projects he has gained a reputation for success.
After the release of Yeezus Scott’s career started to get rolling. His Owl Pharaoh mixtape was met with good critical success and his Days Before Rodeo mixtape was even better received. All of this led up to the release of Rodeo.
Scott has many influences and would be described as being heavily influenced by artists such as Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and T.I., to name a few. Scott’s sound has a lot variety with influences ranging from trap to pop. Rodeo follows these genres pretty liberally but with his own Travis Scott touch to it.
“Oh My Dis Side” is quite possibly the catchiest song on the entire Rodeo experience”
Rodeo starts off not with Travis Scott rapping but with none other than T.I. doing a narration to start off the album. T.I. plays a sort of moderator, narrating the story of “La Flame” sporadically throughout the album. The opening track “Pornography” gives us a spacey yet hammering beat as we hear the oh-so-familiar deep heavily-filtered voice of Scott talking about his fantasies, which involve drugs, sex, and money.
From here we transfer into one of the first “bangers” on the album. “Oh My Dis Side” is quite possibly the catchiest song on the entire Rodeo experience. This track would be classified as trap and I would agree with that but it isn’t your typical southern rap or Atlanta trap track. It has a polished feel to it and the feature of Migo’s Quavo really gives this track the catchiness it deserves. In the middle of this track we get a beat switch up that brings us into the “Dis Side” portion of the track. There is still a trap feel to the song and we get good bars from both Travis and Quavo in this portion of the song. The album starts off with a very decent 1-2 punch.
The album from here goes into the first single from the album, 3500. The song clocks in at 7 minutes and 34 seconds and is quite the ride. We get solid features from both Future and 2 Chainz on this song. The beat clammers and all three artists flow well over the song.
The next song Wasted features a grimy beat with Scott’s voice being heavily pitched and a good but not great feature from Juicy J and even a Pimp C sample (R.I.P.) in the middle of everything. A surprising song to put early in the album.
From here we get into what may be the best three song stretch on the entire album. That stretch is that of 90210—>Pray 4 Love—>Nightcrawler. These songs bring character to the whole album and provide great moments. In 90210 we hear a ballad about L.A. and how Scott meets a “porn star girl from the valley” while in the second half (which involves another beat switch) we hear about how moving to L.A. has worked out for Scott.
In “Pray 4 Love” we get a feature from The Weeknd. This song exemplifies how well Scott can work with other artists and make worthwhile songs. Scott gives us two impressive verses and we get a solid hook from The Weeknd and even a verse. The Weeknd and Travis have many similar themes so the collaboration fits really well in the album.
In “Nightcrawler” we get a bass heavy beat with a siren wailing in the background and honestly it is one of the best beats on the whole album. More good features on this song as we get a Swae Lee (of Rae Sremmurd) and Chief Keef feature.
Two last highlights on the album I want to go over are the songs “Maria I’m Drunk” and “Flying High”. “Maria I’m Drunk is quite possibly the most interesting collaboration on the whole album. There are two features on this track one is by Young Thug and the other is by none other than Justin Bieber. Bieber comes through with a spectacular verse and even uses a Young Thug flow. Of course, Young Thug also flows well on the song. (Maria I’m Drunk is not available on Spotify but if you have Apple Music or purchase the album you can listen to it. But seriously, check it out somehow).
In “Flying High” we get a collaboration between Toro Y Moi and Scott and some production credit from Pharrell. The track is oddly accentuated around pop and gives a catchy beat and hook that will be sure to have you singing “I be flying hiiiiiiiighhhhh”.
Overall, Rodeo is an experience not seen since since Kid Cudi dropped Man on the Moon: The End of day. It gives direction and hope to the youth and gives life to the legend of “La Flame”
Score: 8.5/10
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