Travis Scott

• Rodeo [Epic/Grand Hustle, 2015] *
• Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight [Epic, 2016] B+

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Rodeo [Epic/Grand Hustle, 2015]
I await the blessed day when Vincent Vazquez or Angel Del Villar II taps this wellspring of comfy hooks in the service of a rhyme about butter almond ice cream or improving our city parks. ("90210," "3500") *

Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight [Epic, 2016]
Where American Honey is lascivious, the second album by this Houston rapper whose Lamborghini I've never understood is jutht plain thilly. Celebrating the women he fucks on the drugs and alcohol the real-life Travis supposedly eschews, the rapper-organizer taps a raft of people who owe him something, and if they're somewhat less august than DJ Khaled's band of toadies, they get more done as they establish Auto-Tune as the human side of screwed-and-chopped. Universal pitch correction makes it harder to tell one rapper from another even as big names Kendrick Lamar and Young Thug nail focus tracks. So let's hear it for 21 Savage and Kid Cudi too. B+