When it comes to presentation, Travis Scott is anything but complacent. Scott has begun a truly wild rollout for the release of Utopia, his long-awaited fourth solo studio album, which includes a July 28 performance at the pyramids of Giza, and the announcement of five distinct covers for the LP. At this point, Scott has been a ubiquitous cultural force and A-list pop star for the last five years at least, and topping the acclaim and career-defining success of 2018’s Astroworld will be no easy feat. Scott’s solution? To recapture the raucous feeling of his early records, when the Houstonian was still something of an enigma, co-signed by rap greats like T.I. and Kanye West, but carving out his own creative identity.
“Every time I listen to [Utopia], it just takes me back to the Rodeo days and the Owl Pharaoh days,” Scott told the crowd at Wireless Festival on July 8, referencing his first studio album and his first mixtape.. “It just takes me back to the motherfucking days where we used to just flip shit upside-motherfucking-down!”
We don’t have a terribly clear framework for what Utopia will sound like—save for a handful of loose singles, some (“Escape Room” “Mafia,”) better than others (“Highest in the Room,” “Franchise”) and leaked snippets of collaborations with Bad Bunny, James Blake, and Future—however, Scott released three clips to his Instagram teasing the themes of the project.
In “Houston,” footage of (presumably) a young Travis in choir practice plays while in narration, Scott talks about dreaming up worlds more expansive than his hometown. In “Miraval,” footage of Scott recording the album in France plays as he reveals that for Utopia, he’s refocused on making his own beats, a hallmark of his early work but something he went away from as he became a bigger star. And the most exciting clip is “Malibu,” which shows Scott in the lab with the legendary Rick Rubin actively working on a track (that we don’t hear), with Rubin enthusiastically praising the beat. It’s a mark of how far Travis has come—ten years ago Travis was an observer in Malibu watching Kanye and Rick finish Yeezus.
The superstar musician’s output has been scarce of late, likely in part a reaction to the Astroworld Festival crowd stampede that resulted in 10 deaths. (In late June, a Texas grand jury declined to pursue criminal charges against Scott for any potential role in what happened.)
In a June 2021 interview with Women’s Wear Daily, Scott teased an album that leaned into “psychedelic rock,” which he has explored in previous work alongside Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker. But that was more than two years ago, and since then many hip-hop artists have infused their music with kaleidoscopic guitars and woozy melodies, including Lil Yachty.
Scott has been talking up Utopia for years now, including in a February 2021 i-D interview where he stressed, “I want to make a fucking new sound.” Scott also told i-D that being a father—he has two children with Kylie Jenner—has influenced the way he makes music, too.
“Kids show you a different outlook on life, how they view things, the type of pressures they have and what makes them happy, what makes them move. Like, when she watches certain movies or listen to certain songs,” Scott said of his oldest, five-year-old Stormi. “Or she watches my concerts on YouTube and she realizes she’s there, she’s ready to see now. I realized my job is way more important than what I thought because of her.”
And a Scott rollout wouldn’t be complete without dabbling in the world of fashion and glamorous accessories. Over the last few months, when Scott has been spotted in public, it’s often with an elegant leather briefcase bearing the word “Utopia” on the side. (In May the case was literally handcuffed to one of his bodyguards in Hollywood.) The briefcase has proved a pretty ingenious viral promotion tactic for teasing which of Scott’s peers will be featured on the project—so far the likes of SZA, Bad Bunny and The Weeknd posted a photo have been spotted with it.
Scott told i-D that “collaborating with new people” is a key part of the Utopia process, and it’ll be intriguing to see who else he brings into the mix besides presumably Bad Bunny. One likely candidate is new rap sensation Sexyy Red, who Scott just embraced in a big way over the weekend by inviting her onstage during his Wireless set and continuing to play hype man to her music during the subsequent after party.
There’s no confirmed release date for Utopia, but it’s hard to imagine that he’ll do something as momentous as performing at the fucking pyramids without having the album come out on or near July 28. Until then, expect more cryptic billboards and mysterious suitcase sightings.