Astroworld — Travis Scott for 2018 Album of the year, and here is why…
H-Town Downtown… Lets first and foremost congratulate the one and only Cardi B on winning her first Grammy for her first album “Invasion of Privacy”, but in the words of Kanye West “Yo, Cardi, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but Travis had one of the best videos of all time…” Okay I am stretching it, but reason I mention that quote is for the simple fact I love in this album that Travis Scott released he subbed a lot of things that he experienced as a child. For instance, the title alone is “AstroWorld” which was the Six Flags theme park that was closed down in the year 2005.
The inspiration behind the music which was the park closing in 2005. For that it was a park that Scott frequently visited and that he said “the closing of the park to the fun out of the city, we want it back.” So when all of that happened and he was then asked what did he do for fun and he stated “started making music”. Literally if it weren’t for this park closing we probably would not have Travis Scott. So when he made songs on this album such as “No Bystanders” which was referencing to two new guys in his camp (Sheck Wes and Juice Wrld) that he was not too big on sharing the platform with them. Only because he sees himself as a monster that can only continue to grow and that he will not stop until he gets it.
Now this production was FIRE… it was genuinely good. For that I reference one of my favorite songs on the album which is “5% TINT”. Now I reference that song for the way he sampled the piano riff from Goodie Mob’s “Cell Therapy.” Now that producer who is FKi (an Atlanta producer) was blessed to get the riff from the song and placed it in the smoothest of ways. Where Travis literally rode that riff throughout most of the song making the flow of everything just overall good. Now also a great production on this album was “Sicko Mode”. You tell me someone who literally opens about the first 90 seconds of a song on a buildup and then to flip it to a percussion beat that reminisced another producer. Then to ride that beat out throughout the whole song. I haven’t heard a beat swap like that in such a long time and for the song to have a feature and the feature artist to touch base on both beats was ridiculous to me.
Now the true reason why I personally like the album is because he tells a true story. A story based off of his upbringing in Houston, TX. See I am not the biggest Travis Scott fan but I can love an album that has meaning behind it, and when I am able to sit down and listen to it more than once and find more and more pieces to the puzzle of why a certain song was written. I just love music that has a meaning behind it, and that is why I would have chosen “AstroWorld” as my favorite rap album of 2018.
