Before Travis Scott topped the US Rap charts with Rodeo, and Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight,
three years later.
Travis Scott grew up in the suburbs of Houston, in a family with a long line of musicians.
His dad was a drummer and his grandfather was a jazz composer.
Young Travis showed musical promise from a young age, playing drums from the age of three,
and producing his first song at 13 years old.
His parents were happy to encourage his musical endeavours while they remained a hobby, but
something changed as Travis began to cut class to make beats, and chose to follow music as
a career.
He would find himself in fist fights with his dad, and lying to his mother, as he spent
money she sent him for college on plane tickets to New York and LA.
Soon, his parents caught on to his scam, and cut him off financially, even as he returned
to Houston for a failed attempt at making amends.
Then, homeless, penniless, and alone, Travis returned to Los Angeles on borrowed money.
And that's when he got a call from TI.
What's going on, fellas?
My name's Michael McCrudden, coming at you like a bitch with the story of Travis Scott
prior to fame, here for you on Before They Were Famous.
Now this is an updated video.
I covered Travis Scott way back in 2015, and needless to say that video needed a good dusting
off.
More recently, I've covered Vince Staples, Kap G, and Trippie Redd.
Travis Scott was born Jacque Webster junior on April 30, 1992.
For the most part, he grew up in the middle class suburbs of Houston Texas, but from ages
one to six, lived with his grandmother in South Park, a neighbourhood that was a little
different.
“Growing up, my grandmother stayed in the hood,” Travis told Complex, “So, I seen
random crazy shit.
Mad bums and crazy spazzed out motherfuckers.
I saw people looking weird, hungry and grimey.
I was Always like, 'I gotta get the fuck out this shit.'”
Travis grew up surrounded by music.
His grandfather was a jazz composer with a masters in music composition.
His father was a drummer, and taught young Travis to play when he was just three years
old.
A little down the line, Travis would also learn to play piano, but quit that because,
in his words, “it wasn't getting no bitches.”
Travis's mother worked for the tech giant, Apple.
He also has siblings, a set of twins, nine years his junior.
As a kid, Travis would frequent Houston's Six Flags AstroWorld.
He loved the theme park so much that he's naming his third studio album after it.
But on October 30th, 2005, the park shut its doors forever.
While this was a devastating blow for young Travis, the same year, his dad bought him
studio equipment.
A thirteen year old Travis Scott would then be crafting his own songs from home.
His first was over a Pharrell Williams beat.
Kanye West would also be a significant artistic influence for Travis, both as a producer and
as an Emcee.
(Optional: CLIP 4 reprise) Travis also greatly admired Kid Cudi, and went as far as to say
THIS in an interview with MTV News...
Travis attended a private Elementary and Middle School, before studying at the public high
school, Lawrence E Elkins High.
He loved private school, and was a little less interested in high school, but managed
to graduate early at the age of 17, and was a pretty well behaved kid.
He smoked weed for the first time as a junior in high school.
After toking a relatively weak hybrid of indica and sativa called White Widow, he recalls
getting so high that he knocked over a display of potato chips at a local gas station.
The only trouble he got into was for skipping school to meet up with collaborators and make
beats.
As his focus on his music crystallized, Travis began working as part of a group, and began
Djing at parties.
He started rapping, and expanded his producing skills, working with just about every beat
making program other than Fruity Loops, which he hates.
In 2008, he and longtime friend Chris Holloway formed the duo The Graduates, and released
their first untitled EP on My Space.
The next year, he got together with OG Chess to form the Classmates, with whom Travis released
two projects, Buddy Rich in 2009, and Cruis'n USA in 2011, before disbanding in 2012.
While Travis's father had helped to nourish Travis's budding musical talents, he wasn't
always so supportive.
His parents were not happy that Travis wanted to pursue rap as a career.
Often while he was making beats in his room, his dad would storm in and rip his power cord
out of the socket, or cut the power to his room entirely.
It got so bad that the two would even have fist fights in front of Travis' friends.
After high school, Travis briefly attended the University of Texas, San Antonio and Austin,
majoring in International Business.
He found the experience depressing, and after two years, he decided to drop out to continue
pursuing his music.
When his family found out, they were horrified, but Travis delayed that a while by lying.
After deciding to drop out, he called his mom and asked for money for books and a new
computer.
When the cash arrived, he bought a plane ticket to New York.
While there, Travis spent time grinding it out, working with Mike Waxx, and at Just Blaze's
studio, Stadium Red.
He was crashing at friends' houses, sleeping on floors, and after three or four months
of this, he grew tired of the New York scene.
He then decided to fly out to Los Angeles.
By this time, his parents had tried visiting him at college and discovered that he wasn't
there.
After catching on to the fact that he had dropped out, they cut him off financially.
Around the same time, Travis' has said his friend and collaborator, who had been travelling
with him, decided to call it quits and left him.
So, Travis found himself alone, with no money, and not even a phone.
He continued to grind it out, and managed to get some cash selling beats.
that music was a dangerous career path to follow, threw him out of the house.
A friend of his bought him a ticket back to LA, and he made his return.
The moment he landed, he discovered 14 text messages from TI and his crew, asking him
to come by the studio.
While Travis didn't know at the time, TI had heard one of his productions, titled Lights
called Animal.
Travis would soon join TI's Grand Hustle, with whom he would release all his music going
forward.
His first solo mixtape, Owl Pharaoh was released in 2013, and it's only single, Upper Echelon,
He was subleasing a room, but was thrown out because his landlord thought he had hooked
up with his girlfriend.
Tavis's buddy Sickamore then got him a hotel room to stay in, but it wouldn't be there
long.
While he was chilling there, he got a call from Kanye West's people.
In his first meeting with Kanye, Travis was served a taco on a fancy platter, topped with
sour cream, the only thing he seems to hate as much as fruity loops.
Still, he managed to eat the whole thing, as Kanye listened to his beats, and offered
both praise and critique.
Kanye took Travis under his wing, signing him to Good Music's production wing, Very
GOOD beats.
He would earn production credits on songs like To The World, The Morning, and the remix
of I Don't Like.
He called his son up and told him he was proud of him.
Travis appeared on the cover of XXL, as a member of its Freshman Class in 2013, and
would go on to release his second solo mixtape, Days Before Radio in 2014.
His first studio album, Rodeo, dropped on September 4th, 2015.
It would be certified Platinum, top the US Rap Charts and hit number three on the Billboard
200.
It's lead single, 3500 would feature Future and 2 Chainz, while Antidote would be certified
Bird in the Trap Sing McKnight.
The mega-successful album peaked at number one the Billboard 200, and received serious
critical praise.
The album featured artists like 21 Savage, Andre 3000, The Weaknd, Quavo, Kendrick Lamar,
Bryson tiller, Young Thug and, the artist Travis had long wanted to collaborate with,
producing Kanye's Good Winter, a follow up to Cruel Summer.
Somehow, he also found time to tour, launch his own imprint label, work on an up coming
collab album with Quavo, and put together his next studio album, AstroWorld, set to
be released on September 1st, 2017.
As for the rest of the story, well, you know the story because this is before they were
famous.
My name's Michael McCrudden.
Thanks for watching.
Two more videos for you down here.
Check those out, hit subscribe, and let me know who you want me to document next in the
comments down below.