Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight

Background

On January 4, 2016, Scott announced on his Snapchat account that he would be revealing the title for his new album at the time. While going on the road, Scott has been tweeting on what the title is to the album on Twitter. He first removed all of his tweets, and announced the title to the album on the Anti World Tour. In an interview with Billboard, Scott explained the meaning of his album title: "My next album, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight is basically about all my friends and growing up here [in Missouri City]. I'm not saying that it's a trap, we not in the fucking projects, but it's like a social trap. It's a social connection trap from what you want to do and how you want to express yourself. I feel like everyone just gets constricted by their parents or just life."

On March 30, 2016, Scott and Young Thug announced that they will be releasing their song in "the next few days". In April 2016, while Scott was performing in Houston, Texas, he previewed a snippet of the track. At the Paris Nightclub in Chicago, Illinois, Scott played the full version of the song, called "pick up the phone". The duet track between Scott and Young Thug, featuring Quavo. On May 18, 2016, Scott performed a surprise show in Atlanta and confirmed the imminent release for the album, stating "I'm dropping my new album in a couple of fucking days." He went on to reveal that the album will feature "some of my favorite fucking artists."

On June 2, 2016, Scott took that song down, after posting it on his official SoundCloud page, stating that "This song was supposed to go to iTunes, but labels are making this more complicated than it actually need to be this was gonna be my single, but now I'm giving a way for the kids. P.S. They might take this down cause they don't want kids to eat."

On July 26, 2016, in a show in the Ford Amphitheater at Coney Island, Scott announced the release date for Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, however, the album missed its release dates due to "technical difficulties" twice. After a free event named the .wav party in Los Angeles, his music video for "90210" was showcased, while his music video for "pick up the phone" has been released on Travis Scott's Vevo account on YouTube. Scott also revealed that Kid Cudi and Kendrick Lamar would appear on his album, with the production that would be provided by Cashmere Cat. On August 25, 2016, Mike Dean announced that the album was delayed again, due to the incompletion with the album's mixing. On August 31, 2016, Scott announced that he finally finished his album on his Instagram. On September 2, 2016, on the third episode of .wav radio on Beats 1, Scott said that the original name of the album was going to be Tina, until Quavo of Migos inspired Scott to change the album name to Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight due to one of his lyrics on the song "pick up the phone".

Recording and production

On July 24, 2016, in an interview with DJ Whoo Kid, Scott revealed that his biggest musical influence is Kid Cudi. It was announced that Cudi would be appearing on the album. This was revealed a month after Cudi announced that Scott would appear on his respective solo album, Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin'.

Release and promotion

On August 12, 2016, Scott premiered a song, called "The Hooch" on the debut episode of his new Apple Music radio show .wav radio with Chase B. The song was produced by Vinylz, Allen Ritter, Boi-1da and Mike Dean. On August 15, the song was released via Apple Music Connect, and then Scott announced that the album would be released on August 26. On August 19, Scott premiered the new song, called "Black Mass" on the second episode of .wav radio with Chase B. The song was produced by Murda Beatz and Cubeatz.

On September 2, 2016, Scott premiered the album with Chase B on the third episode of .wav radio, with guest appearances and guest mixes by Pizza Boyz and Kendall Jenner. Scott then released the new song, called "RaRa". The song was features guest verse from American rapper Lil Uzi Vert, with the production that was provided by TM88 and Cubeatz.

Singles

"wonderful" featuring Canadian singer-songwriter The Weeknd, was released as the album's lead single. Scott also did some additional production on the track, with co-production by Mike Dean, and the main production by T-Minus and Boi-1da. After its premiere through Scott's SoundCloud account on December 31, 2015, the song was serviced to rhythmic radio on February 16, 2016.

"pick up the phone" with Young Thug, was released as the album's second single for the retail sale and streaming on June 3, 2016. It features a guest verse from Quavo and additional vocals from Starrah, and the main production was provided by Vinylz, Frank Dukes, with co-production by Allen Ritter and Dean. The music video for the single premiered on August 12, 2016. "pick up the phone" peaked at number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is also included on Young Thug's mixtape Jeffery. On October 3, 2016, the single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

"goosebumps" featuring Kendrick Lamar was released as the album's third single on December 13, 2016. The song was produced by Cardo, Yung Exclusive, Cubeatz, and Mike Dean.

Critical reception

Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 64, based on eight reviews. Matthew Cooper of Clash said, "While Scott might spend the 14 tracks telling us how incoherent he is, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight is anything but." Scott Glaysher of HipHopDX said, "There isn't a ton of lyrical progression for La Flame on this album. ... But he soothing digitized finish and woven through the most polished contemporary drums in Hip Hop, it's truly hard to hate. That puzzling beauty is the best part about Scott's music." Matthew Strauss of Pitchfork said, "Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight escapes as Travis Scott's best work yet: a combination of elevated significance, self-awareness, and the old trick of spinning something so plain into something so luxurious." Preezy of XXL said, "Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight is a roller coaster ride of an experience, with an endless amount of highlights, whether it be an indelible hook here or timely guest verse there."

Andy Kellman of AllMusic said, "Swarming basslines and sluggish beats likewise form the rhythmic foundation, with gauzy and tickling keyboards adding sweetness to Scott's hedonistic hooks. Only on "Guidance", through scuttling drums granted by DF, is there a significant shake-up." Calum Slingerland of Exclaim! said, "Scott's hedonistic lyrics about sex and drugs remain awfully vapid for what's been billed as a trap masterpiece (the utterly banal "SDP Interlude" takes the cake). ... Scott's strength, of course, continues to lie in his ear for beats, with part of his appeal being his ability to make songs with less than rewarding subject matter still sound cool." Grant Rindner of PopMatters said, "The results here are highly mixed, and he might simply be the kind of artist who should take more time on his releases, even if that extra time isn't completely his choice." Mike Giegerich of Tiny Mix Tapes said, "Birds's stripped-down approach bares an utter lack of finesse behind a microphone."

Complex placed Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight at number five on their "50 Best Albums of 2016" year-end list, while Variance Magazine placed it at number 38. XXL ranked it among the best 50 hip hop projects of 2016.

Commercial performance

Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, earning 88,000 album-equivalent units, of which 53,000 were pure album sales. It became Scott's first number one album. In January 2017, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units over 500,000 copies in the United States.

Track listing

Track notes

Sample credits