BY: Matthew Alvarez
We are officially in Rodeo. It’s been a while since Travis Scott released his universally acclaimed mixtape Days Before Rodeo; approximately 382 days, 9168 hours, 550,080 minutes, and 33,004,800 seconds (that’s a lot more than a couple of days, Travis). Through all the hype, waiting, and heavy anticipation, Travis is finally here, with hoof’s following full force right behind him.
The first question everyone wants to know is: did Rodeo survive the hype? After great singles, rumored features, and an actual album leak, everyone was biting their damn hands off. Well it’s not that simple, as is everything in music. A die-hard Travis fan will get something completely different than let’s say, someone who hasn’t heard another one of his full length projects. It’s his debut album, key word debut. With Travis building his career over the past two years to becoming one of the most controversial rapper’s on the spotlight, this album will be the first time many people listen to him in his own territory. I can confidently say that the Rodeo lives up to expectations, but not past it.
T.I. is enlisted to narrate the beginning of the voyage into Rodeo (taking a nice que from Kid Cudi’s Common narration). Travis quickly takes over, ad-libs and auto-tuned vocals flying all over the damn place. One of the things that’s so easy to immediately miss out on as you franticly listen to the whole album is the production, which is in essence his specialty. The G.O.O.D. producer, along with others including Mike Dean, Metro Boomin, Sonny Digital and Kanye West, has put together absolute excellence in terms of beats [Side note: Can Kanye stop producing for other people’s albums and finish SWISH already (or whatever you’re going to call it)]. “Pray 4 Love” featuring The Weeknd, is masterfully put-together dark R&B, offering some of the best sound in the album (we can all guess why). The whole album is on par with what you would expect on any Travis Scott piece.
When dissected, Rodeo truly shines. Each individual song is amazing, and you’ll find more variety in this album than ever before from Scott. But when you look at the album as a whole, there is little connecting everything together. It’s one of the few weaknesses that keeps the album from reaching its highest potential, but frankly, I doubt he cares, this is Travis Scott we’re talking about. You start off with Juicy J rapping about trippyshit, and end up with Justin Bieber rapping about getting drunk (It’s not as bad as you think). Yup, the whole thing is centered on not giving a damn, its Travis Scott. Unlike Days Before Rodeo however, where every song complimented the style of the next, you’re jumping around a lot in Rodeo.
Glad I got the negative stuff out the way, because the variety found is a double edged sword. Each song is its own little gem. “90210” is the first song that’ll give you that “wow.” An angelic voice dramatically sings, prompting a nice transition that leads to the latter part of the song, all under biblical synths and the classic distorted bass. One of the most anticipated tracks, “Piss on Your Grave,” featuring Ye, gives us a proper sequel to Black Skinhead (again, finish your album dammit). Chief Keef and Swae Lee come into the album banging, creating a sure to be anthem “Night Call.” The first two singles, “Antidote” and “3500” hold well on their own against the barrage of new jams. Each song has something special to it that you won’t find on the next.
If you’re looking for some thought provoking bars in Rodeo, don’t read any further. While Travis delves into slower, more meaningful vocals at a couple of times, the majority of the lyrics and verses are about not being sober, doing crazy shit, and reminiscing on the crazy shit they do while not being sober, etc. The album is the equivalent of duck taping a bunch of rough diamonds together, and it works wonderfully. It’s the same ol’ Travis Scott, and thanks to great features and fantastic beats, it’s a completely fresh listen. For lack of a clever pun: The album is a Rodeo, with Travis stampeding into his own chaos.
