Travis Scott’s third studio album with 17 tracks was released on Friday, August 3, ASTROWORLD, and hit number one on the Billboard 200 Charts. Scott is the fifth artist to make 17 songs land on the Hot 100 simultaneously.  “SICKO MODE” featuring Drake is the most listened to song on Travis Scott’s Spotify with 47,465,908 listens, and the number keeps growing.
Epic Records produced the album and included childhood memories of Texas to the album cover, since Scott was born in Houston, Texas. AstroWorld was Scott’s favorite place to go when he was a kid and was devastated when his favorite rides “Dungeon Drop”, “Greezed Lightnin’”, and “Superman” closed permanently. On his ASTROWORLD tour, he is trying to include roller coasters to give the fans a sense of nostalgia.
In my opinion, I like the album a lot. It shows a different vibe of Scott compared to his other albums, such as “Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight” and “Rodeo”. It seems to have a more laid-back vibe and more relaxed rhythms. It’s not your average hip hop/rap album since the beat and lyrics aren’t as fast as some other rap music like Gucci Mane and Young Thug.
The top 5 songs on Travis Scott’s Spotify include “SICKO MODE”, “STARGAZING”, “CAROUSEL”, “YOSEMITE”, and “WAKE UP”. It includes The Weeknd which adds a unique voice to the guitar seeming beat.
The album features a variety of artists from Frank Ocean to Juice WRLD. In “STOP TRYING TO BE GOD”, it is rumored that Stevie Wonder is featured playing the harmonica. There are mixed feelings about the album as a whole. Some say that it was “overhyped” and “too chill”.
“SICKO MODE” is a pretty good song because it features two songs in one. Since it is the number one listened to song on Scotts’ Spotify, it shows that it is very mainstream and listeners don’t get the whole experience of the album and hearing Scott’s variety of lyrics.
In May 2017, Scott’s single, “BUTTERFLY EFFECT” was released after much anticipation. When I saw that it was featured on ASTROWORLD, it led me to believe that he’s been working on his music for a while now.
At Grady, students’ favorite song to listen to off the album was “YOSEMITE” featuring Nav and local College Park rapper Gunna. The song features a similar sound to Gunna’s “Sold Out Dates” with the unique rhythm. Both songs start out with a similar rhythm and layout of verses and once you listen to both songs back to back you can clearly tell they have a similarity.
I was very happy when Scott came out with a release date on his Instagram with a picture of the album cover because I wasn’t sure if he would come out with an album so soon after having a baby with Kylie Jenner. It was a surprise to know that he was working on this album the whole time while taking care of his new addition.
David LaChapelle shot the album art and made two different album covers. One cover, the one that we see on listening platforms, includes children coming out of an amusement park while the other includes a contortionist and a dark alternative. I think that the first cover is a good representation of the songs because the children seem happy coming out of the park which alludes to the emotion brought out by Scott.