Career
After dropping out of college, Travis Scott moved to New York City to start a career in music. Initially, he aimed to become a record producer and started focusing on hip-hop production. In New York, he spent much of his time at Just Blaze studio.
He partnered with his longtime friend, Chris Holloway, and together the two launched the band ‘The Graduates’. A year later, in 2008, they came up with their first EP on the social networking site MySpace.
In 2009, he formed a group with his former classmate OG Chess, named ‘The Classmates’. Between 2009 and 2010, The Classmates released two projects. While the first was with Buddy Rich, the second was with Cruis'n USA. Scott mainly looked at the production aspect of both projects. The duo remained together until 2012, after which they disbanded due to financial and personal problems.
Travis Scott faced a period of temporary low in his life, both professionally and personally. While nothing momentous was happening in his music career, his financial shortcomings left him with meager means to survive. He traveled between Los Angeles-Houston-Los Angeles. Coincidentally, TI of Grand Hustle Record heard Scott’s production ‘Lights Love Sick’ and signed a deal with him.
Scott’s first-ever full-length project was a mixtape titled ‘Owl Pharaoh’. But call it fate or bad luck, the release of the project got delayed and was later re-created by Kanye West and Mike Dean. Meanwhile, Scott released the track, ‘Blocka La Flame’, a remix of fellow GOOD Music label-mate Pusha T's single ‘Blocka’.
In March 2013, Scott released a music video of the song ‘Quintana’ which was originally set to appear in ‘Owl Pharaoh’. During this time, Scott became a member of the XXL’s Freshman Class of 2013.
By the end of March 2013, Travis Scott came up with a snippet of his first commercial debut single ‘Upper Echelon’. The single was finally sent to Urban Contemporary Radio and released as a free download.
In July 2014, Scott came up with his song ‘Don’t Play’, which was a prelude to his first major label debut studio album ‘Days Before Rodeo’. The song was a great hit. It was this success that led Scott to announce a concert tour ‘The Rodeo Tour’ with Rich Gang's rapper Young Thug and producer Metro Boomin. The tour started on March 1, 2015, in Santa Ana, California, and ended on April 1, 2015, in Portland, Oregon.
The Rodeo Tour was a grand success and made Travis Scott an overnight sensation. Renowned artists such as Kanye West, Chris Brown, Wale, and Birdman made special guest appearances in various legs of the tour that took place in different cities such as Denver, Colorado, Houston, Texas, Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, Philadelphia, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, California and Seattle, Washington. It is cited as one of the wildest rap tours of the current times.
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In September 2015, Scott’s much-awaited album ‘Rodeo’ was released. It included guest appearances from various artists. The album was a big hit and debuted at number 3 on the US Billboard 200 chart. On the Billboard Rap Album chart, ‘Rodeo’ hit the bull’s eye with the number 1 spot.
His album ‘Rodeo’ included two singles, ‘3500’ and ‘Antidote’. While ‘3500’ was an acclaimed hit, it was ‘Antidote’ that gave him a breakthrough in his career. It went on to become the highest-charting single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 16.
In 2016, he released a collaborative single with Thug titled ‘Pick Up The Phone’. The single was majorly successful and reached number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
By mid-2016, Scott announced that the title of his second and third albums will be ‘Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight’ and ‘AstroWorld’ respectively. In September 2016, he announced the premier of the second album ‘Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight’ on his third episode of .wav radio. He subsequently released the album on iTunes and Apple Music. By September 11, 2016, the album became Scott’s number-one album on the US Billboard 200. The following day, he signed a deal with Universal Music Publishing Group.
In February 2017, Scott performed at All-Star Weekend in New Orleans at Champion Square. A month later, in March he also performed at the New Orleans BUKU Music + Art Project festival. At the same time, he also green signaled his next concert tour ‘Birds Eye View’ which toured in cities such as New Orleans, Louisiana, and Eugene. The European leg of the tour commenced on June 23 and was completed on July 9.
Apart from working on his third album, he featured on a track from Canadian rapper Drake's project ‘More Life’ titled ‘Portland’. The song peaked at number 9 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming his highest-charting song as a featured artist. During this time, he started working on a collaborative album with Atlanta-based rapper Quavo of Migos.
In May 2017, Scott released three new tracks on SoundCloud, including ‘A Man’, ‘Green & Purple’ (featuring Playboi Carti), and ‘Butterfly Effect’. He followed it up with a ‘DAMN .Tour’ and a performance at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards on their single ‘Walk On Water’.
By the end of 2017, Scott was featured on Trippie Redd’s single ‘Dark Knight Dummo’. It peaked at no. 72 on Billboard Hot 100. A week later, his collaborative album with Quavo, ‘Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho’, was released. The album debuted at no.3 on the Billboard 200 with seven of its tracks chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
In August 2018, he released his third studio album titled ‘Astroworld.’ The album saw massive acclaim upon release and peaked at number 1 on the US Billboard 200. It was certified triple platinum by the RIAA and became a recipient of the ‘BET Hip Hop Award’ for ‘Album of the Year.’
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In April 2019, he, in collaboration with SZA and The Weeknd, came out with the song “Power is Power” for the fantasy drama series, ‘Game of Thrones.’ The same year also saw the release of his documentary film ‘Travis Scott: Look Mom I Can Fly’ directed by White Trash Tyler. Scott also made a minor appearance in the 2019 American coming-of-age crime drama film ‘Gully’ where he played the role of a store owner.
In December 2019, he launched the collaborative compilation album titled ‘JackBoys.’ The album was a major success and debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200.
He voiced ‘Rhyme-a-saurus’ in the 2021 animated musical Christmas special ‘Trolls: Holiday in Harmony’ directed by Sean Charmatz and Tim Heitz. The film holds a 72% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes. In April 2022, he was featured in the song ‘Hold That Heat’ by Southside and Future. The following month, he was seen performing at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. He also performed at a solo show at The O2 Arena in London in August 2022.
His fourth studio album is titled ‘Utopia’ and is slated to release in June 2023.
