This Right Here...is Astronomical
Behind all of the flashing lights and loud music, there is a lot that goes into creating music and performing. Many people do not realize the time and energy most artists put into their music and especially their concerts. One artist in the rap industry tops them all: Travis Scott. There are countless headlines all over the internet calling him the best performer on earth, including in Rolling Stone. He really puts on a show.
For the past couple of years, I’ve listened to a few of Travis’s songs here and there, but didn’t become a diehard fan until his latest Grammy nominated album ASTROWORLD was released in August of 2018. Before the album was released, Travis hyped it up to the absolute max to get people excited and didn’t tell his fans when the album was officially being released until about a week before and fans went insane. So many people, myself included stayed up until midnight for the release and fell in love instantly.
About a year later on August 28, 2019, the documentary, “Travis Scott: Look Mom I Can Fly,” was released on Netflix. Directed by White Trash Tyler, produced by Travis Scott, his daughter Stormi Webster, David Stromberg and Angus Wall, the 85-minute documentary revolves around Travis gaining his fame and the time around creating and ASTROWORLD. In the trailer for the film, it showed many clips of Travis and his partner, Kylie Jenner, but the actual film was the opposite of that. Many people were expecting it to be mainly about their love story before they had their daughter Stormi, but we were all deceived. There were clips from Kylie’s ultrasounds and when their daughter was born, but it mainly revolved around his music.
From beginning to end, I had chills all over my body. Seeing how Travis interacts with fans and the amount of time he puts into his music is unreal. “Rappers” today don’t put nearly as much work into their work like he does. At concerts, if a fan were to come on stage and security comes after them, Travis stops security and lets the fan have fun with him on stage. The mosh pit at his concerts are next level. Travis is all about having high energy and excitement, but he is always aware if someone is injured or needs medical assistance and stops the show to calm fans down to get those people to safety, then starts up again.
Travis takes pride in his performances, takes control, and makes sure that the show goes the way he wants it to. In the film, it shows him personally talking to the stage crew at one of his shows because he did not like how the visuals looked and said, “The roller coaster needs to be lit! You're still not lighting the base. If I can't see those from where I'm at, nobody can see them. These lights along the rail of the roller coaster, I don't get no action.” It got very heated.
Watching the music making process is so wild. Seeing Travis and his crew in the recording studio just brainstorming and mixing beats is mind-blowing. Hearing the “rough draft” of a song from ASTROWORLD and what some of the songs almost were absolutely blew my mind and there are no words to describe how it felt. Seeing Travis react to Juice WRLD and Drake’s verses on his songs was so insane. When the tracks were about to start playing, he was straight faced, sitting in a multi-million dollar home with some of his friends and other rappers, and when the rapper’s verses started he absolutely lost his mind and was jumping and running around because he knew that right there, was astronomical. I know I keep saying this but things like that really sent chills all over my body that I was tearing up and by the end was crying because I had no idea how to react other than that.
Travis does a lot of things with “the kids” in mind. Talking to a group of kids in Houston, Texas, he said, “You all hold the future. It might not seem like it because you can’t drive and don’t have a driver's licenses yet, but just use all the time that you can’t go to parties and clubs to really start working on your future.” He is known for connecting with fans, even if they’re all in the crowd he will touch each and every single person from the front row all the way to the back. Another fan said, “He will notice you. You just put that energy in and it just changes your life. It just makes you feel like you can go crazy and no one judges you.” Another adds, “He's one of the only artists that when he comes in, he can vibe with every single person in the crowd.”
After watching the film I was absolutely speechless. My love and respect for him went up to new levels and I needed to see him in concert again, but for real this time. Last time I saw him I didn’t have the best seats and couldn’t have the full experience. I remembered he was headlining for the music festival “Rolling Loud” and I was already debating asking my parents to go, but now I had to. I was on vacation with just my grandmother and immediately texted my parents begging them to let me go and it was a success. After seeing the order confirmation I got chills all over again. I’ll finally get the full experience, and with more of my friends going with me this time.
His music is something that can make me cry, dance around, and chill out and fall asleep to. His voice, even though it is autotuned, just simply “hits different.” His music, old and new, got me through a rough patch of my life and still helps me to this day. I listen to his music constantly and it never gets old. Even if you are not a fan of Travis or rap music, I still highly recommend anyone to watch the documentary. Seeing all of the behind the scenes of the production of the music and concerts is very intriguing. In my last article, I did talk negatively about Travis and his performance, I was just at the wrong place and did not get the full experience. When I see him perform in October, I am expecting a wild show.
