Imagine Jacques Webster — better known as rapper Travi$ Scott — as a mad scientist with the sole intention of creating a quintessentially-2015 rap album.
Watch as he combines the woozy, psychedelic, lean-inspired, tripped-out feel (employed by the likes of A$AP Rocky and Future) with distant, groggy vocal effects on the choruses. He then bridges that with a feature list composed of artists who, in 10 years, will be seen as distinctly mid-2010’s figures (The Weeknd, Young Thug, Quavo, Future). Throw in a bit of indie-crossover with Toro y Moi, which seems to be all the rage, and what do you get?
The answer is Rodeo, an album that, despite reaching peak-2015, doesn’t reach the peak in terms of overall quality.
The album opens in a dramatic fashion, with rapper TI painting Scott as a “rebel against the system” who “refuses to conform or comply with the ways of authority” and has a “mood” of “fuck this shit.” After suffering through this somewhat force-fed narrative of Scott being the coolest person in the history of the universe, we are rewarded with a pretty good song called “Pornography.” It’s an aggressive track and perfect way to start out what is a highly anticipated project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWRHWqOk4aw
What follows “Pornography” is a jumbled assortment of decent tracks, less-than-decent tracks and tracks that make the listener question what the hell he or she is listening to.
In the first category is “3500,” the lead single for Rodeo. Over a glitzed-up trap beat, Scott and comrades Future and 2 Chainz brag about a $3,500 coat, having a “young ‘Yonce with an Iggy on her,” and having paraphernalia in their baby pictures. What really pushes this song over the edge, beside the Free Bobby Shmurda shoutout is — and I’m not kidding about this — the use of the phrase “trill” 61 times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTXgzuenCCs
As far as the less-than-decent songs are concerned, forgettable tracks such as “Wasted,” “Nightcrawler” and “Flying High,” among others, fall into this category. These songs lack both the quality of the better tracks on the album and the sheer what-the-hellness of the more outlandish offerings.
Speaking of those what-the-hell-is-this tracks, the song “Piss on Your Grave” speaks for itself. This track features literary masterpieces and true poetry such as “I pull my zipper down and whip it out,” “I use your face as a urinal” and, predictably, “Piss on your grave, piss on your grave.”
The Weeknd still can’t feel his face on impressive but occasionally disjointed latest
The following song “Antidote” is equally, if not more, questionable. The background voice yelling out random phrases feels like an off-brand Migos song in the worst way possible.
On a more serious note, the production on this album is really, really good. In terms of sheer amount of contributors, the production credits are Kanye-sized. Allen Ritter, Metro Boomin’, Zaytoven and Ultra$ound, among many others, all make appearances. The beats on this album could probably stand alone. With hard-hitting backbones accentuated by psychedelic and intricate flourishes, the album is worth a listen for the production alone.
In the end, Scott may have been too successful in his quest to make an agreeable album. He seems to check all the boxes for what a hip-hop album should have in 2015, but it still feels ultimately unsatisfying. Listening to the album, it is tempting to condemn it for being vapid and unimportant, but then it is hard to pin down exactly what to critique about it.
If important albums dictate and influence the sound of a genre in a specific period of time, and lesser albums simply reproduce and mimic that sound, Rodeo falls in the latter group.
