TRAVIS SCOTT'S UTOPIAN MUSINGS
To understand the extraordinary year of Cactus Jack/Epic’s global hip-hop headliner Travis Scott, you have to go back to a 10-year-old mixtape. In 2014, the newcomer dropped the seminal, street-aimed release DAYS BEFORE RODEO, a prophetic statement that helped ignite a new, more adventurous era of the trap-music movement. Backed by a future all-star lineup that included Migos, Young Thug, producer Metro Boomin, and Rich Homie Quan, the Houston, Texas native not only gave a glimpse of rap’s eventual takeover as the most popular music genre in the world, it also showcased the visionary’s maverick instincts as a risk-taking hitmaker.
A decade later, Scott celebrated the 10th anniversary of DAYS BEFORE RODEO with a record-breaking August 2024 re-release that saw him debut at #2 with 361k, making his set the best selling mixtape of all time. In its fourth week of release, spurred by huge vinyl sales, RODEO rose to #1 (the fourth of his career) with an additional 156k. The album, which currently stands as the top-selling rap release of the year, was one of several highlight-reel statements this year for the Grammy-nominated lyricist and producer.
Since its 2023 release, Scott’s chart-topping fourth studio album, UTOPIA—featuring such superstar collaborators as Beyoncé, 21 Savage, Drake, Bad Bunny and The Weeknd—has amassed 2.8 billion streams in the United States alone and 6.4 billion worldwide. UTOPIA has also spent a total of 12 weeks in the Top 10 and 23 weeks in the Top 15. This year, “Goosebumps,” his 2016 team-up single with Kendrick Lamar, was certified diamond (10 million units), his second single, following “Sicko Mode,” to do so.
On the road, Scott has proven to be just as dominant. His sold-out CIRCUS MAXIMUS Tour, which has hit stadiums across the U.S., Latin America and Europe, has to date grossed $97.5 million, selling over one million tickets and attracting more than 686k fans, making it the most successful hip-hop trek of 2024. (He’s repped for live by Cara Lewis in North America and WME’s James Rubin everywhere else.) During a memorable July 23 stop in Milan, Italy, Scott performed a show at the Ippodromo Snai La Maura open-field venue before 80k raucous fans that was mistaken by city locals for an earthquake.
The rapper was overwhelmed by the reception. “Last night was a dream,” Scott later posted on Instagram to his 57.9 million followers. “No, this isn’t a festival. This [is] a ‘show on the tour,’ in the words of [manager David] Stromberg. Milan, y’all owe me nothing. Y’all gave… all 80k of y’all had the best time ever. CIRCUS MAXIMUS…”
Since his 2015 double-platinum studio debut with RODEO, Travis Scott has become just as celebrated as one of the music world’s most bankable artists as he is a cultural ambassador for hip-hop (his collaborative Nike shoe line is a frequent sell-out among sneaker heads and tastemakers, earning the superstar $100 million a year). Yet beyond the sales and global adulation, he shares an organic connection with a loyal fanbase that has witnessed his unpredictable evolution for over a decade. During an August sit-down at NYC’s Fanatics Fest, when asked how he stays engaged with his followers, Scott turned the interview into an impromptu live performance of his 2017 quadruple-platinum rave-up “Butterfly Effect.” It was bold. It was brazenly out the box. It was Travis Scott.
