Who is Travis Scott? Jacques Webster aka Travis Scott is a rapper and producer hailing from Houston, Texas and this is his sophomore album, Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight. Travis is signed to Good Music, which is founded by Kanye West and is also signed to Grand Hustle which is founded by T.I., Travis Scott started producing at the age of sixteen in 2009, In 2011 Travis dropped outta of college and moved to Los Angeles and had help out there with the music site illroots, and later was discovered by T.I. and was contacted and brought into the studio record some music. Travis was also was discovered by Kanye West around the same time and was featured on the Cruel Summer Good Music compilation album. In 2013 Travis dropped his debut mixtape Owl Pharoh, originally was supposed to be release in 2012 but was delayed for samples clearances and reconstructing the project when he was scouted by T.I. and Kanye. I remember listening to this mixtape back then and not being a huge fan of it at the time, they were a couple of decent tracks on the mixtape like Upper Elechon and Uptown. I thought the production was very good but lyrically and with the auto tune crooning I wasn't feeling it at all. Travis followed up in 2014 with his next mixtape Days Before Rodeo and me coming out of it somewhat surprised on how decent it was. I know he chooses style over substance, however, I thought he slightly improved with his production even though he hardly had a hand in it on this mixtape and lyrically he was improving just a little bit so he proved to me he wasn't just known for hooks and ad-libs. In 2015 he dropped his long-awaited debut album Rodeo and I remember going into the album with low exceptions cause I wasn't sure if it was gonna be same old, same old, but however this album exceeds my exceptions and it was one of my top five favorites album of that year and my favorite trap album as well. I was highly impressed how the way he blended trap music but still had the mainstream quality to it with awesome bangers and pretty enjoyable collaboration's involved with Rodeo, made the whole project very album worthy. In the beginning of 2016, he hyped this album up, Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight and after many delays and a few songs to hold fans over for the wait the album is finally here. So does this project exceeded my exceptions and is better than Rodeo?
Yes and no. The difference between this and Rodeo is Travis played it safe and took no risks here, Birds has less catchy hooks and lyrically somewhat worse. I know going into this album it will be straight forward and topics of every song will be about drugs, money, and women but I wished he took some risks here like on Rodeo. The album is still enjoyable and fan's of Travis older work would appreciate this since I know some Travis's fans weren't fans on the last album. My favorite highlights are the features from artists like Kendrick Lamar, Nav, 21 Savage, Bryson Tiller, Cassie, Young Thug, Quavo, The Weeknd Andre 3000 pops up on the first track and Travis's hero Kid Cudi is listed as well on here. Kid Cudi feature on the track "through the late night" and yeah it's basically "Day N' Nite" part two and Cudi's humming is pretty ridiculous on here, It still reminded me of old Cudi from yesterday year and the hook is pretty damn catchy. There is one questionable line here when Travis says "stroke my cactus", that sounds pretty painful and you get that checked out. "Sweet Sweet" has the same melody like on Drake's "Hotline Bling", However ,this version is about this girl is sweet like coco but she loves the coco so that's a no-go, I think is pretty damn catchy and something to vibe to, I highly enjoy this song. "Pick Up The Phone" was released early and was featured on Young Thug's recent mixtape as a bonus track, This is so god damn fun, The three rappers do the song justice and do a pretty great job at the track and stayed focused on the topic of the track. "Wonderful" was released late last year and it is a leftover from Rodeo so it surprises me that this song is the on the album but I still the enjoy the track.
"Biebs in the trap" I didn't care for at first but the track grew on me after a couple of listens, Nav verse is fine and the hook is quite catchy a bit, I'm curious to hear from the dude since he's unknown to me and Travis did alright with his verse. "Outside" is an another highlight of mine and Travis doesn't go way overboard with the autotune vocals and the song is focused on the topic of the song, it's a very low-key trap banger and 21 Savage's verse is pretty decent here. "goosebumps" is obviously a favorite of mine cause it has my favorite rapper featured on here, Kendrick destroyed his verse, his vocals are all over place and I did cringe at first listen when Kendrick's vocals were high pitched towards the end when he said "put the pussy on a pedestal, put the pussy on a high horse, that pussy to die for" but it's honestly fun to say and Travis did his job just fine. "the ends" and "way back" flow together as one huge full track, I remember at first I was damn this is one long intro and realized it was two separate tracks. Andre 3000 verse on "the ends' is quite interesting cause he's rapping about growing up in Altana and surviving a series of child murders that was going going on in his youth and he still has survivor's guilt decades later, it's some deep shit. "way back" is a decent cut, The hook is pretty damn long and the bridge is a bit odd with Travis saying 'Don't believe what's on your tv" but I like the beat switch up here and those synths on the outro on this track are wonderful. One finally positive thing here is the track "lose", once again I didn't like at first listen but overall I like the track here.
Now with the negatives on here, my least favorite track is "guidance" lately, I'm not a huge fan of rappers/singers trying to do dancehall music and that's all have to say my least favorite track here. "coordinate" was a track that leaked I think few weeks before Birds dropped, I'm not a huge of this hook. Travis sounds lazy on here and high off his mind and mumbles through most of the track here, wished this song wasn't on the album sounds like a b-side or an unfinished song."first take" was just ok at best, I did enjoy Bryson Tiller's guest verse here and made the track his own to be honest. "SDP interlude" is one of the most trippiest tracks here and it is all over the place but the song is very repetitive here with Travis saying the same line for two straight minutes here but I enjoy the production here. I wished though this could have been a full fleshed track but I understand it's just an interlude.
Final thought's here is the album is pretty good, not great but still enjoyable to listen to. They're a few skippable tracks, questionable bars, and less catchy hooks but it's held together just fine. This is album is perfect for parties, bumping in the whip, and even a late night drive by yourself. I'm curious how Astroworld will sound, will he continue to stay safe where he is at or take risks again and be more ambitious, we will see. That's all for today, Robert Garcia.
Favorite Tracks: goosebumps, sweet sweet, outside, the ends, way back, through the late night, biebs in the trap, pick up the phone, lose
Least Favorite Tracks: guidance
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