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About

Astroworld Is the third studio album by hip hop artist and producer Travis Scott. The long-awaited followup to his first two studio albums, it was released to critical acclaim for its psychedelic sound and aesthetic, while also spawning the hit single "Sicko Mode".

History

Astroworld was announced in 2016 and advertised by Travis Scott as a continuation of his 2015 debut studio album Rodeo and was set to be released in 2017 as his second album. However though, rather in its stead was the album Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight. The album would also suffer slight delays, before eventually being released on August 3rd, 2018.

Named after the now torn-down Six Flags park in Scott's hometown of Houston, Texas, its release was preceded by the lead single "Butterfly Effect" which was uploaded to Soundcloud in May 2017 with two other songs, "A Man" and "Green & Purple" featuring Playboi Carti. Throughout the delays for the album, Travis would also still be active, such as releasing his collaborative album with Migos member Quavo as the duo Huncho Jack, titled Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho, the promotional single "Watch" with Kanye West and Lil Uzi Vert, and verse features and contributions to a number of different songs.

Reception

Upon release, Astroworld was released to acclaim from critics. The album currently holds a Metacritic score of 85/100. Praise was given to the psychedelic production and aesthetic of the album.

Related Memes

Album Cover Parodies

On July 31st, 2018, Scott^[1] and photographer David LaChapelle,^[2] the creator of the cover, shared images of the latest Travis Scott album, titled Astroworld. The album has two covers, both showing an amusement park. The image in the daytime features children (shown below, left), and the image at night features myriad nude and scantily-clad models (shown below, right).

After the album cover was released, social media users began posting photoshops parodying the cover, particularly the gold likeness of Scott. User Twitter user @LaFlameEx posted a photoshop parody that gained over 730 retweets and 2,700 likes (shown below, left). The account for website Cycle posted an edit featuring Scott's head as Olmec from Legends of the Hidden Temple, gaining over 340 retweets and 1,100 likes (shown below, right). These parodies were covered by Highsnobiety^[3] and Heavy.^[4]

Various Examples

Trans Model Removal Controversy

Social media users also noticed that Scott's post of the "night" cover featured one less model than LaChappelle's post (shown below).

The missing model, Amanda Lapore, is a well known trans model and appears in the back left of LaChappelle's version of the cover. Responding to not appearing on Scott's post, Lapore^[5] said:

"I’m curious why I’m not on the picture @travisscott posted 💋❤️💄 #amandalepore #glamourgirl A girl can’t help it❗️Too distracting for the eyes ❗️Upstaged everyone in the photograph ❗️Oh well……….. I love @david_lachapelle and @travisscott ❗️Love and kisses

Social media users expressed their displeasure at Lapore's erasure from the cover, and some speculated the erasure had transphobic motives. Model Aquaria, best known for winning RuPaul's Drag Race Season 10, said as much in her tweet about the erasure (shown below, left). User @peteyplastic claimed the erasure was indicative of a wider transphobia problem in hip hop (shown below, right). Responses like these were covered in HelloGiggles.^[6]

According to Page Six,^[7] Scott received the album cover without Lapore, which he then posted, in essence claiming ignorance of the erasure.

Sicko Mode

Sicko Mode is the third track on Astroworld that was also released as a single on August 21st, 2018. Featuring uncredited vocals from Drake, Swae Lee, and the late Big Hawk, it was praised as one of the high points of the album and is one of Scott's most successful singles to date. Since its release it would later see use in remixed videos online.

Nav's "Yosemite" Verse

Nav's "Yosemite" Verse refers to rapper Nav's closing verse on the album's twelfth track "Yosemite". Upon release, numerous fans took note of Nav's vocal mixing on the song which was noticeably quieter compared to Travis himself or fellow featured artist Gunna, which led to memes poking fun at Nav or the sound engineering work. Nav himself would later acknowledge the trend with a now-deleted post on his Instagram account (shown below, right) and a newer version of the song with proper mixing was added to streaming services (original mix shown below, left). In a later interview with Genius, recording engineer Jimmy Cash said in regards to Nav's quiet verse:

I don’t know what happened exactly because that was Mike [Dean]. I think it was just a little mistake on that.
…
We were just going on overdrive, over time, you know what I mean? We were just doing so much at once. I got in a crazy car wreck on my way to Mike Dean’s on the last day when we were turning in the cleans, right after we turned in the album. I got clipped by a little semi up in Studio City on the way up to Mike’s. I was okay and everything but my car was totaled, it was crazy. So we were just on overdrive and I think that was just an honest slip-up. Something happened, I don’t know. It was kind of strange.

Search Interest

External References