Scott’s vocal contributions range from passively pleasant to jawdroppingly and hilariously bad, and the frequent vacillation lends the album a great deal of unnecessary tension. Like contemporaries Drake and, to a lesser extent, Kanye, Scott’s strengths come in the construction of sounds and atmosphere, not in narrative and lyricism. Scott, as mentioned before, is less a “rapper” and more an aesthete in rapper’s clothing.
The lyrics, however, fall woefully short. And thanks to them and many more (the record's real MVP is Wondagurl, who supplies three of the record's best instrumentals), the record sounds great. There’s the aforementioned James Blake, who contributes to “the ends,” there’s Dot Da Genius, who contributes to the Kid Cudi-featuring and interpolating “through the late night,” and Cashmere Cat and Boi-1da also make appearances here. The producers list here tells you pretty much everything you need to know about how good the production is here. The sonic cues that Scott’s been hammering away at for years now are firmly in place-overdriven bass and trap percussion, eclectic left-field samples, more AutoTune than a Bon Iver/Imogen Heap collab record-and he uses them all pretty effectively. The sonics here are uniformly dark and sinewy. The fact that so many cooks are in the kitchen would, under any other artist, lead to an incohesive mess of an album. Andre 3000, Kid Cudi, The Weeknd, James Blake (a reviewer favorite), and Young Thug are just some of the names that pop up here. Birds In The Trap… only compounds this justification as Scott brings in a who’s who of popular and experimental music into the fold. Scott’s ability to pull in disparate influences and collaborators is (near) unmatched in popular rap right now (Khaled serving as his one chief competitor), and this ability is one of the banner reasons to listen to a Scott album. Travis Scott is the DJ Khaled of trap rap, less a true creative force and more a master curator. But these critiques and comparisons belie Scott’s greatest strength: his synthesis. As a rapper, he’s equal parts Kanye and Drake, just as likely to get political as he is personal, vindictive as he is vulnerable. One of the biggest complaints leveled against Scott for the duration of his major label career is that he’s not really a presence. However, he does again produce material that, while not necessarily A-level, will no doubt color the airwaves in the year(s) to come. Fortunately for biters like Tory Lanez and Lil Uzi Vert, Scott doesn’t do much to push the envelope on Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight. It begs the question of how his A-level material would affect the game. Scott’s C-level material was zeitgeist-shifting. So, almost exactly one year post-hence, Scott’s second studio effort somehow has even higher expectations appended to it. Somehow, one of rap music’s most high profile disappointments became the template for contemporary rap. But in the last year, the sounds and sentiments of Scott’s piecemeal effort have become the reigning sounds in hip-hop, being co-opted by everyone from Lil Yachty to Rihanna. When Pitchfork gave it a 6, it was hard for anyone to find fault in it. At the time, Rodeo was easily the most overhyped and underwhelming project to bear Scott (and to a lesser degree Kanye West’s) name. It’s hard to write about Travis Scott’s debut outing nowadays. Rihanna’s ‘Anti’ Sells Fewer Than 1,000 Copies in U.S.Review Summary: La Flame manages just enough fire. Watch Young Thug Jump on a Runway to Adjust a Model’s Outfit at New York Fashion Week This Company Literally Paid to Turn “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” Into a Viral Dance Craze We're talking fan entitlement and why stans don't buy music!