We’re 40 years down the line with hip-hop and an attitude that a lot people still have towards it is that it doesn’t come from a musical foundation.



A lot of stuff still isn’t. A lot of producers don’t know shit from Shinola. You know, they just know how to make music that sounds good and it works. No disrespect to people that don’t use music theory or don’t know it. It does help to be able to figure out what key a song is in, even though with your scales you can figure it out so you can set your Auto-Tune right. So many songs with Auto-Tune are off or have the wrong note playing on the 808. And they pass it off as being hood.

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Do you respect younger producers more who do have a grasp on music theory? Take a Day Trip breaking down music theory to Zedd was basically like a fuck you.



That was good. I didn’t know too many people really understood that. That kind of clicked on me a couple years ago that that’s what we were doing. Like Oh wow, this is the five and the six *plays chords that resemble Travis Scott production*. It’s a E flat minor which is the first note we play. It’s interesting.

The general consensus on ASTROWORLD seems to be that it’s Travis’s most well put together as far as sound goes. Did you all approach the album any differently than his previous projects?

We just get better and better every time, you know? The next album will be better.

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“Stop Trying to Be God” is one in particular that just feels like it’s a new level for him. What was it like putting that song together?



It was crazy. It took like a year for it to all come together. Travis had to first part done and it just developed. I got a call one day that Stevie was coming to the studio and I was like I’ll be right there [laughs]. I recorded his harmonica. Like, I never record people very much anymore. I just get somebody else to do that. With Stevie, I’m not gonna switch to someone else.

Was it always the plan to have him on there?



It just happened, you know. Just running into people at hotels and wherever people run into each other.

It’s rare to hear about anyone working on something for a year now.



Travis might have spent longer. He spent two years on the album. He’s always working.

