i visited the Rodeo and all i got was this stupid action figure hannan Follow Sep 16, 2015 · 5 min read

this album art is so fucking bad fam you seriously have all the artistic talent in the world at your fingertips, DONDA and all that and this is what you give us? come on travis this is truly barnacles

What is Travi$ Scott? A rapper? Producer? Thief? Musician? Asshole? Your favorite critic’s most hated artist? Probably all of the above. Travi$ has risen to a fair level of prominence since signing with Grand Hustle and weaseling his way into a production deal with G.O.O.D Music. While his comeup has been anything but conventional, he’s managed to develop himself into one of the most polarizing figures in hip hop. On one hand, his music is clearly an amalgam of his influences, so much so that it’s hard to tell what part of his music he can truly call his own. But on the other hand, no one in hip hop is making the same music that Travi$ Scott is and he has collected a cult following who eat up his every word.

Even if people don’t admit it, Rodeo was one of the most anticipated albums of this musically overloaded year. A lot of that hype was generated by Travi$ himself, who swore that his debut album would be levels above his prequel mixtape Days Before Rodeo. Unfortunately, while delivering a solid album, he brought almost nothing new to the table. The album is smooth and cohesive, but possibly a little too cohesive. Most of the songs blend into each other, with the exception of the outlier “Piss On Your Grave” which we all know was Kanye’s track that he gifted to Travi$. Rodeo shines everywhere Travi$ Scott isn’t. While he’s able to recruit major star power to carry his songs in ways that he never could, it comes at the price of getting consistently washed by anyone he lets on a track. He got bodied by a singing whiteboy on the album’s best track “Maria, I’m Drunk” and by a revitalized Chief Keef on “Nightcrawler.” “Flying High” is a cool track, with Toro y Moi shining on Pharrell’s production only for Travi$ to bring it down with his weak rhymes. And who would’ve thought that one of the album’s best verses would belong to The Weeknd? Even then, sometimes the features still aren’t enough to prevent some tracks from falling flat. “Oh My Dis Side” is a boring, uninspired song despite Quavo’s effort. “Wasted” continues Juicy J’s cold streak, all over a stolen beat anyway.

Travi$ Scott is more of a pop artist than a rapper. His music is primarily the product of the talented team around him, with his own contributions being dubious and scattered at best. He’s a hollow placeholder who is blessed with the most lush production in hip-hop. One could give Travi$ credit for knowing what he wants his music to sound like, but how much of it did he really orchestrate himself? Defenders of Travi$ Scott in the past (myself included) used to compare his musical process to Kanye’s: he may not produce the beats anymore, but he had all the right people in the room to create the sound he wanted and maybe even make some tweaks himself here and there. This theory applied to some parts of Days Before Rodeo, seeing as how all the beats by established producers sounded much different than their regular output. But how much did Travi$ really do on this album? The production credits only show him on one track, and if anything Mike Dean — present on just about every track and speaks of the album like it’s his child — deserves more credit for constructing the backdrop for Travi$.

So if he had little involvement with the production, the only thing that can be accredited to Travi$ are the lyrics, which have always been the lowest point of his music. It’s flabbergasting how after years of surrounding himself with the best talent in hip-hop, he still has not gotten any better at rapping. Travi$ Scott has never written a memorable line in his life, and the bars on Rodeo do nothing to change this. Every song centers around the same theme, ranging from superficial lines about designer drugs and models in the hills of L.A. to anonymous trapstar braggadocio. There are a few spots on the album where Travi$ seems close to rapping something of significance, but then he remembers who he is and trails off halfway through the verse. “90210” and “Pray 4 Love” are great sounding tracks, but like most songs on the album, they leave a lot to be desired from Travi$. In a sense, Travi$ is more derivative of Kid CuDi than Kanye: shallow, fake-deep raps that barely scratch the surface, some decent melodies, and a rabid fanbase of angsty teenagers.

What he lacks in any sort of lyrical ability, he does make up for with his sharp ear for melody. The autotuned melodies on hooks and some verses are just about the only positive thing that he contributes to his A1 production. Yet he manages to negate his credibility further by editing his voice to sound like every rapper but himself. He put on his best Swae Lee impression in “Antidote,” but despite this it’s one of the stronger tracks on the album. Ironically, I truly can’t tell if Young Thug is on “I Can Tell” or if Travi$ really just ripped off his voice and his ad-libs. This only adds to the fact that Travi$ Scott is an artist without an identity. He can wear the clothes of another rapper, but he can never be them.

It’s incredibly easy to rip Travi$ Scott. He’s simply not a very good person, and although the claims against Travi$ from people who have been wronged in the past seem sketchier than the acts themselves, there are plenty of well-documented cases of Travi$ Scott being an asshole. However, Rodeo is a conflicting listen because at the end of the day and aforementioned criticisms aside, it just sounds cool. It took a lot of people for it to come together, and though Travi$ didn’t do a whole lot besides rap poorly, it’s hard to knock Rodeo as a whole. You don’t listen to Travi$ Scott for the bars, you listen for the ~vibes~ and Rodeo delivers just that. The live shows will be nuts, and with a strong first week and this weird fling with Rihanna, the hype is his to lose (and boy he’s trying). In a stacked 2015, Rodeo is undoubtedly one of the better albums this year, even if the artist responsible is somewhat of a façade.

Score: 6.7/10

Favorite track: “Maria, I’m Drunk (feat. Justin Bieber & Young Thug)”

Favorite beat: “Nightcrawler” (prod. Metro Boomin, Southside, TM88, Mike Dean, Allen Ritter)

Favorite feature: The Weeknd, “Pray 4 Love”