Travis Scott

Early life

Jacques Webster Jr. was born on April 30, 1992 in Houston, Texas. He grew up in Missouri City, a middle-class suburban area bordering southwest Houston. Scott stayed with his grandmother "in the hood" from ages one to six, but later moved to the suburbs, where his mother worked for Apple and his father ran his own business. Scott attended the University of Texas at San Antonio before dropping out to fully pursue his music career.

2009–12: Career beginnings and record deals

At the age of 16, Scott began his music career as a record producer, with a focus on Hip hop production. He subsequently entered his first partnership with his longtime friend, Chris Holloway, who formed a duo as The Graduates. In 2008, the duo released their untitled first EP on Myspace. The following year, both Scott and Holloway formed with OG Chess, and formed a group, entitled The Classmates. The Classmates released two projects with Buddy Rich in 2009 and Cruis'n USA in 2010. Scott mainly handled production work on both projects. Later in the year, personal conflicts and financial disputes lead to the disbanding of the group. After Scott left college, Scott moved from Houston, Texas to Washington, New York, where Scott began work with friend Mike Waxx, who owned the music website Illroots. Eventually frustrated in New York, Scott moved to Los Angeles, California four months later. Rapper T.I. subsequently listened to one of Scott's produced songs, entitled "Lights (Love Sick)". While in Los Angeles, T.I.'s rep contacted Scott, asking him to come down to a studio for a meeting. During the meeting, T.I. freestyled over "Animal", one of Scott's instrumental productions.

2012–14: Owl Pharaoh and Days Before Rodeo

His first project, titled Owl Pharaoh was set to be released as a free download for 2012. However, the project was delayed, and was announced to be slated for the 2012 release. The project was later re-created by American rapper and record producer Kanye West, and a fellow record producer such as Mike Dean, and then the project once again been delayed for sample clearance issues. Scott released his track, called "Blocka La Flame", a remix of fellow GOOD Music signee Pusha T's single "Blocka" (which featured production and vocals from Scott). The song was produced by Young Chop, with the additional production by Scott himself, alongside Mike Dean. On March 22, 2013, Scott released another single from his new project, called "Quintana" (accompanied by the music video). The mixtape's version of the song features Guest vocals from an American hip hop recording artist Wale, while the production was handled by Scott himself, alongside Sak Pase and Snoop Dogg, BoluwSound, ChuSound and Mike Dean. On March 27, XXL Magazine revealed that Scott was a member of the XXL's Freshman Class of 2013. On March 29, following his interview with British DJ, DJ Semtex, Scott premiered a snippet of his next single, called "Upper Echelon" featuring 2 Chainz. On April 2, 2013, Scott stated that his new project was revealed to be his official debut mixtape, Owl Pharaoh and would be released on iTunes on May 21, 2013. On April 23, the song was sent to urban contemporary radio. The EP was released for free download.

Scott performed a supposedly new single from his debut studio album, which was tentatively named "1975" featuring Big Sean, at the Texan festival South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 13, 2014. Scott later confirmed via his Twitter account that the song is not called "1975", however, it would be included as the first single for his second mixtape, titled Days Before Rodeo. He was once again on his Twitter account, announcing the name to his official debut album, titled Rodeo. On May 5, 2014, Scott released the full version of the new single, now named "Don't Play" featuring Big Sean and the band the 1975, on his SoundCloud and Twitter accounts. Following the success of Days Before Rodeo, on his Twitter, Scott announced that he would headline his tour, called The Rodeo Tour with Rich Gang's rapper Young Thug and producer Metro Boomin. The tour started on March 1, 2015 in Santa Ana, California and ended on April 1, 2015, in Portland, Oregon. The tour ran through major cities such as Denver, Colorado, Houston, Texas, Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, New York City, Atlanta, Georgia, Philadelphia, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, California and Seattle, Washington. Second shows were added to some cities such as Los Angeles and New York City, after his first shows had sold out too quickly towards the eyes of his fans. Artists such as Kanye West, Chris Brown, Wale and Birdman made special guest appearances in certain cities. Scott's Rodeo Tour has been acclaimed to be one of today's wildest rap tours.

2015–2016: Rodeo and Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight

Rodeo was released on September 4, 2015, by Grand Hustle and Epic Records.^[1] The album features guest appearances from Kid Cudi, Quavo, Juicy J, Kanye West, The Weeknd, Swae Lee, Chief Keef, Justin Bieber, Young Thug and Toro y Moi, and includes production from several producers such as Mike Dean, Kanye West, WondaGurl, Suber, DJ Dahi, Metro Boomin, 1500 or Nothin', Sonny Digital, Southside, Terrace Martin, Zaytoven, Pharrell Williams, Illangelo and Travis Scott himself, among others. The album was supported by two singles: "3500" featuring Future and 2 Chainz, and "Antidote". The latter became his highest-charting single on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 16. Rodeo received generally positive reviews from critics and debuted at number 3 on the US Billboard 200. It also debuted at number one on Billboard's Top Rap Albums chart.

On January 4, 2016, Scott would make the announcement on Mike Dean's Instagram that he already had a new album on the way. On February 8, 2016, it was announced that iLoveMakonnen, Vic Mensa and Travis Scott will be part of the "WANGSQUAD", an Alexander Wang campaign. On March 29, 2016, 300 Entertainment executive Lyor Cohen revealed that Scott and Young Thug were releasing a single soon and called Scott's upcoming album a "classic". On April 7, 2016, Travis Scott previewed a single with Young Thug at one of his shows. On May 17, 2016, Travis Scott announced that the title of the album would be Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight and the title of the next album would be called AstroWorld. On August 31, 2016, Scott announced that Birds in the trap Sing McKnight was finally finished in a post on Instagram. Scott premiered the album on his third episode of .wav radio on September 2, 2016, and was later released on iTunes and Apple Music. On September 11, 2016, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. On September 12, 2016, Universal Music Publishing Group's CEO, Jody Gerson announced that the label signed a worldwide deal with Travis Scott.

2016-17: New music, collaboration with Helmut Lang and going on tour

On January 26, 2017, Scott was back in the music headlines after featuring in Migos's hit album Culture, appearing in the song Kelly Price. That same day, Scott announced via Instagram that he was collaborating on a new clothing line with New York-based fashion brand Helmut Lang. This is not Scott's first time in the fashion industry but appears to be only a side project to his music. Scott was spotted back in the studio the day after he announced his new line and is also preparing to go on a tour called Birds Eye View from early June to late August 2017. He performed at All-Star Weekend on February 16, 2017 in New Orleans at Champion Square. According to World Star Hip Hop, Scott has been working on a collaboration album with rapper Quavo of Migos, potentially to be released later in 2017. Scott also performed at New Orleans BUKU Music + Art Project festival on March 10, 2017. In addition to the collaboration album, Scott announced to his fans his third studio album, AstroWorld, named after the defunct Houston theme park AstroWorld, is nearing completion and will most likely be released in 2017. Scott has also been featured on a track from Drake's project "More Life" titled "Portland". The song peaked at number 9 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Musical style

Spin magazine compared his 2013 mixtape Owl Pharaoh to that of Cudi's Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager. Scott has stated that he is influenced by Kid Cudi, M.I.A., Kanye West, Toro y Moi, and T.I.

Studio albums

Mixtapes

BET Hip Hop Awards

The BET Hip Hop Awards are an annual awards show, airing on BET, showcasing hip hop performers, producers and music video directors.

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are annual awards presented by The Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the mainly English-language music industry.

MTV Europe Music Awards

The MTV Europe Music Awards are an event presented by MTV Networks Europe which awards prizes to musicians and performers.

MOBO Awards

The MOBO Awards are an annual awards show, honouring artists of any ethnicity or nationality performing black music.