“The One Known As Jacque Turned To Scott”: Travis Scott By Norman.
Pt. 1
Seated on a terrace with French journalist Mouloud on a particularly summer day in Paris is seated Jacque Webster. He’s just been handed a French book about a black boy in South America in the 1950s, the boy in the book is called Jacque. It’s a 23 minute interview. One of the few, the most telling where the interviewer pushes no real particular motive. He’s not being asked about Rihanna, not about beefing with A$AP Rocky, he has been asked to define himself, his journey and where he sees himself situated in hip hop right now. At 23, he’s somewhat of an anomaly.
Breaking down the chosen stage name “Travis Scott” on its own is revealing. Travis, a name of an uncle whom Jacque he dedicates so much of his success to whilst Scott could be his way of paying homage to his music idol and one time label mate, Scott Mescudi. Both are points that will be a constant in Jacque’s carefully constructed persona, Travis Scott. At one moment Travis looks Mouloud in the eyes and tells him about why he does this music shit. “I have a little sister. I have an autistic older brother. He’s 30 years old and he can’t talk. But do you understand that’s who mentored me, who taught me how to walk. He can’t talk but he taught me how to walk. And my mom, my mom can barely walk. I mean it’s not like we make sad music and shit but that’s why we do it”. It’s a line that makes sense of his work ethic, a work ethic that has made this 23 year old relatively new comer become one of the most sought out rapper/producers.
“The one known as Jacque turned to Scott”
It took three reworking’s before Owl Pharaoh dropped in 2013. By the time it did, he had been signed both to Grand Hustle as an artist and G.O.O.D Music as an in house producer. He had featured everywhere from Jay Z’s Magna Carter Holy Grail’s standout hit “Crown” to directly influencing the sound of Yeezus. Owl Pharaoh featured a full roster of some of hip hop’s biggest producer names by the time it was released. The likes of WondaGurl, Mike Dean, Allen Ritter, Young Chop, Toro y Moi, Kanye West and Travis Scott himself. The masses were divided. Many said it was a copy paste of Yeezus, whilst others said that Yeezus was a copy paste submit your paper as mine before you do to Scott’s sound. The nature of the relationship between Yeezus and Owl Pharaoh allowed the other to exist. Whichever route one chooses to take both acknowledge that the result was a project that amplified the role that production played in a song. Magnified. Re-defined, revolutionized.
The process of making Owl Pharaoh seemed to be a tedious affair. After Jacque signed as an in-house producer, as we know with G.O.O.D Music, everybody’s energy was completely dedicated to Cruel Summer with Yeezus set to release in relatively quick succession of it. Working on Cruel Summer and Yeezus also set back the release date for his project. For Jacque, it seems the only evidence of this time leaving a last impression on him is how whilst on his Rodeo tour, with frequent collaborators Young Thug and Metro Boomin’, his verse on Sin City is on the shows’ performance line up. The verse was somewhat prophetic of what was to come from the relatively unknown artist Travi$ Scott.
On the balcony Mouloud asks Travis about how he views himself as a rapper. Jacque, pulls a somewhat agitated look on his face, “don’t call me a rapper. Like what some of these rapper guys do is corny. Like I’m not a rapper”. Imploring Jacque to expand on this point, Mouloud asks him about his writing process and is quickly interrupted. “Like I don’t sit in my fucking house with a guitar and write, like I’m goddam Taylor Swift and some shit. Folk tales and shit. .. If I told you the real story behind why Antidote and Impossible came about like it would be a limb blast. But I must tell you, man, I was in a moment I was feeling lit and shit and then some shit happened there was an certain absence for like two weeks, a week and I just felt like by myself and then I sat in the studio for like five days and just went in. I freestyled the whole shit. One take. All the way up until the second verse. My third verse I came back from Dallas and did my the chorus”. Jacque then proceeds to mumble hum the tune of the song. It’s the not the first time this technique of his has been referred to.
In one of Metro Boomin’s recoded studio sessions with the making of Skyfall, mumble like lyrics are then used for the beat to fit around. It’s maybe two minutes later and he’s by the mic singing the melody and a moment later him and Metro are jumping in celebration as “I’m trapped in my conscious/my trap is still bunky/look at all of these hundreds/hit up the hood pharmacist/he serve all the muddy/might shoot at your buddy/who shot at my buddy”. It’s one of the few songs that a more elaborate meaning is held. His rap style is something that has managed to catch us all off guard. Every song of his makes sense but it hasn’t made a point to communicate some supposedly deep meaning concept. Though Skyfall is one of the exceptions, simply one needs to understand that the song isn’t about drugs but rather rappers. “I don’t want to buy no more/ your shit ain’t getting me high no more” is speaking to some of the old heads that fell off.
Owl Pharaoh was a process and it took being reworked thrice before it was made public to the rest of the world. What it mostly comes off as is a sort of ode to the state of rap music as it was more than necessarily an introduction of “Travis Scott”. It served as a homage, an experience of someone trying to find his footing. It was adolescent angst.
Was it a cohesive? As an entire project, yes. Solely based on lyrics? No. Up until that point mainstream hip hop revolved around the art of storytelling. Rhymes that fit the beat that told a story, which matched the tempo. Examples of this “wave” lies in he likes of almost everyone in the 2011/2012/2013. People’s distain for Yeezus and ultimate instinctual urge to reject Travis Scott was rooted in both projects’ lack of coherence.
What Owl Pharaoh did was demonstrate his ability to knit bars together that had nothing to do with the bars just above them yet still maintained the fluidity of a verse. It felt, and to an extent it still feels like, the verses are always secondary to the actual sound of the song, verses almost serving as an accessory. Whilst the verse does not always serve as the most poignant element of the song, it still is incredible how that same intricate beat is reworked again to fit around the same bars that make little to no sense, or can be read as empty, which allows the song to sound polished, well-constructed, catchy. Good. It is masterfully executed each time and something that has remained something that is unique only to him. An example of this is Drive that features James Flaunteroy.
Blocka La Flame was his own rendition of Pusha T’s “Blocka” off his mixtape Wrath of Caine, a song which Jacque had crooned the hook of. The move was risky but it seemed to pay off. But taking it on he managed to display his willingness to be accepted into the rap elite but with a conditional outsider/ different opinion having status within these structures, it’s an ongoing conversation he’s having with good music.
Hell of a Night was a case of, “if I had done this, this was how I might have done it”, rendition to Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Instead of a celebratory attitude to dysfunctional chaos, it was an almost muted mourning. Where Kanye got into the details of his emotions whilst simultaneously experiencing and watching something beautiful fall apart, Travis Scott simply said that something was falling apart and left it at that. If a contrast can be made between the two, it certainly is that. Both throw themselves in the act the song dictates, where Kanye bleats his pain Travis chooses beat it all out on the drums.
Though Kid Cudi made no appearance on any of the songs on Owl Pharaoh, his presence was felt all over the body. It came in the form of “Kid Cudi type humming” and the awkward shy and insecure approach to this project that Cudi had himself displayed on his albums Man on the Moon I and Man on the Moon II. Dance on the moon might as well as been a song by Soctt Mescudi himself. Perhaps Dance on the Moon and the hums were displays of guilt. It’s no secret that Kanye and Cudi stopped seeing eye to eye around about the same time Travis Scott entered the picture and ultimately it could be the reason why the two are yet to collaborate. But I digress.
Owl Pharaoh paid homage to the music of the time, to the moment and refused to really fully display who La Fuego was. It music was the mafia then Owl Pharaoh was his ceremony of being made. He had to do it for them to take him seriously, if at all. For any of us listeners to in future to be willing to engage him. It was successful but many were left confused over what to feel about “Travi$ Scott”, who was he? If Owl Pharaoh had one shortfall, that was it. Though it was a solid body, a sustainable one even, no one could really tell you who Travis Scott was.
