UTOPIA’s Road to Album of The Year

Arguably one of the most unique rappers of this generation, Travis Scott released his record breaking 4th studio album “UTOPIA” this summer, completely shocking his fans with its ambitious production and genre-crossing tracks.

Whether you dislike or love Travis Scott, this album is a testimony to his versatility and talent across styles.

Scott’s rapid rise to fame following his 2015 debut studio album Rodeo, set him up to be one of the most successful living artists by the 2020s. Sadly this success was tainted by disaster.

Controversy ensued following the deaths and injuries of fans during his 2021 Astroworld festival. Scott apologized online claiming that he had not known about the situation happening in the crowd. Following a nearly two year investigation all criminal charges were cleared in the early months of 2023.

One of the many billboards used to hint at a potential release date

Even in the face of this disaster, anticipation for UTOPIA began to build as Scott dropped a surplus of hints to its approaching release.

Scott has been known to show his flexibility as an artist and producer time and time again. He is able to utilize heavily autotuned slow melodic vocals while also being able to speed things up with fast paced rhythmic beats.

With the release of ASTROWORLD in 2018 he strayed away from the slow melodic songs seen in his previous albums and moved to quick tempo bass heavy beats with melodic tracks sprinkled throughout.

Despite ASTROWORLD being his most successful release, Scott decided to do the opposite in UTOPIA, causing many negative initial opinions of the album by his fans. In spite of this, some predicted that the album would grow on fans as the days went on and that is exactly what it did.

In one week, UTOPIA shattered long standing records and became the biggest release in hip hop history, going platinum in under a month. By the end of the first track it becomes clear why.

The instant you press play on the opening song HYAENA, you are greeted by a sample from Gentle Giants “Proclamation” followed by in my opinion one of the most ambitious yet masterful beats in modern rap.

The album continues on with a few more singles from Scott, some featuring vocals from his 5 year old daughter Stormi Webster that complement his own.

TIE Fighters from George Lucas’ “Star Wars,” sampled on the track MELTDOWN

It isn’t until the 7th track where we see our first big feature, Drake, on MELTDOWN. Scott and Drake have been known to work well together as the last time the two collaborated in SICKO MODE they broke billboard records spending over 30 weeks at #1.

MELTDOWN is no exception. Bringing a strong string based beat with heavy technological enhancement including samples from George Lucas’ Tie Fighters. Followed by a switch, speeding up the song and giving us fast paced

vocals for the final minute of the track.

Beat switches in songs are not new for Scott, as some of his best works contain two drastically different beats. My personal favorite from this album is MY EYES, beginning with magnificent, heavily auto-tuned vocals. However two and a half minutes into the song this mood switches and Scott delivers my favorite verse of the album.

“Look in my eyes, tell me a tale

Do you see the road, the map to my soul?”

What many don’t give Scott credit for is his writing. The majority of artists in the rap industry focus on “street life.” Guns, money and sex are common themes among almost every song. While Scott does make use of these topics in his songs, he also brings verses with meanings that are subjective. Meanings that can be interpreted differently by each listener. I think that is an underrated talent, unpossessed by most in the industry.

UTOPIA features many artists, most of which were expected. Big names besides the already mentioned Drake include, 21 Savage, The Weekend, Kid Cudi, Swae Lee, Young Thug, Playboi Carti. Even Beyoncé had her voice heard.

Kanye West’s appearance at UTOPIA concert in Rome. (Credit: SPLASHNEWS.COM)

But one name everyone missed was Kanye West.

Fans were shocked when his name wasn’t seen on any of the songs.

Where was Ye?

Truth is, he was everywhere. Kanye’s influence was seen all throughout the album, his production pattern and beat making skills can be discerned on almost every song.

As Travis said, “There is no UTOPIA without Kanye West. There is no Travis Scott without Kanye West. There is no Rome without Kanye West.”

Overall this album is a masterpiece. While there are some minor imperfections throughout, Album of the Year is easily going to Travis Scott’s UTOPIA.