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Travi$ Scott Rodeo Grand Hustle / Epic

04.09.15

It’s been a long, hot day in Manhattan. Kanye West, Riccardo Tisci and editorial representatives from The Fader and Hypebeast are sat round a long, white table in a minimalist penthouse office space in the Lower East Side. “Let’s build a superstar,” Kanye says, sipping on a glass of ice-cold carbonated water.

Rodeo plays out like mood-board. Rather than actually coming across like a rapper’s debut, it’s more of a confused mishmash of rap music ephemera from the last 12 months. While there are a number of enjoyable moments, it would be impossible to pin down a ‘Travi$ Scott sound’. 3500 sounds like Future at his most anthemic, Apple Pie sounds like a particularly good Rich Homie Quan song and standout cut Maria I’m Drunk is the Young Thug / Justin Bieber collab we’ve always dreamed of – Scott’s presence almost gets in the way.

On Piss On Your Grave – a two-year-late Yeezus afterthought – Travi$ barks, “This is the moment I’ve been waiting for”. The culmination of all that hype is little more than a carousel of buzzwords and style-biting. Fitting then, that the front cover is of an action figure. Much like Action Man, all the parts on Rodeo are present and correct but that is all they are – parts. “But, he isn’t actually, really, doing anything?” says Tisci, ner- vously catching Kanye’s eye-line. “They’ll never notice”.