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Travis Scott · S1 E6
Dropping Out
A brief stint at the University of Texas at San Antonio before telling his parents he's done with school
UTSA campus, San Antonio, fall 2010. Jacques Webster sits in a lecture hall with FL Studio running behind a minimized PowerPoint, and he already knows he's never coming back to this classroom.
JACKBOYS & Travis Scott ft. Young Thug, OUT WEST (2019). The energy in this track is pure liberation, the sound of someone who bet everything on themselves and won. Before the TikTok dance craze and the platinum plaque, there was a college dropout with no backup plan and nowhere to sleep.
Semester One, Last Semester
Travis enrolls at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the fall of 2010. On paper, it's the responsible next step after Elkins. In reality, he spends every free hour making beats with his classmate OG Chess instead of attending lectures. The two start uploading tracks online, building a small following that only makes sitting in class feel more pointless.
Sources
Travis Scott, interview with Complex, "Travis Scott's Oral History," 2015
“I remember calling my dad and telling him I was done with school. He basically said, 'Cool, you're on your own then.' Cut me off. That was it.”
— Travis Scott, interview with Charlamagne Tha God, The Breakfast Club, 2016
OUT WEST, JACKBOYS & Travis Scott ft. Young Thug (2019)
Produced by Chase B, Travis's longtime DJ and creative partner. The beat is stripped to its bones: a bouncing bass, clipped hi-hats, and a synth stab that sounds like a car alarm turned into a melody. Young Thug's hook is pure celebration. Listen for the way the track never builds to a traditional drop. It just keeps bouncing at the same intensity, like someone too excited to sit down. The song sparked one of the biggest TikTok dance trends of 2020.
Sources
JACKBOYS credits, Cactus Jack / Epic Records, 2019
TAP TO REVEAL: What was Travis Scott's second music group before going solo?
Burning the Safety Net
Most kids who drop out of college have a fallback. Travis doesn't. His parents are done funding a son who won't go to class, and they tell him he's not welcome back in the house. He eventually makes his way to New York City, landing in Washington Heights with nothing but beats on a hard drive and a connection to Mike Waxx, who runs the music blog Illroots.
Sources
Travis Scott, Wikipedia
The Famous People, Travis Scott biography
Which university did Travis Scott briefly attend before dropping out?
I KNOW ?, Travis Scott
From UTOPIA (2023). The title says everything about what it takes to drop out and bet on yourself. That question mark carries all the doubt, but the delivery is pure conviction. Travis raps like someone who remembers exactly how it felt to have nothing but certainty that he was right. This is the sound of a decision that could have gone either way.
I KNOW ?, Travis Scott (2023)
Read the lyrics while you listen. Between the flexes and the production fireworks, there's a thread about trusting your own instincts when nobody else does. That question mark in the title is doing a lot of work.
Texas is in the rearview mirror. A Greyhound bus, a duffel bag, and a one-way ticket to New York City are next. Season 2: the come-up, the couch-surfing, and the phone call from Kanye West that changes everything.
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