Boardroom breaks down the business and impact of La Flame’s fiery free project that’s being re-released for its 10th anniversary.
Travis Scott is among the most bankable artists in modern music.
Scott’s songs stream to billions worldwide and amass $100 million tours. He’s the most marketable member of the $7 billion Jordan Brand, not named MJ, with countless collaborations and a signature shoe.
Michael Rubin, Ronald McDonald, and Audemars Piguet all rely on Travis for aesthetics and energy. Live Nation knows Travis turns the dial on stock prices and ticket sales.
But before 80,000 fans in Milan turned up to “FE!N” or one night in Denver moved $1 million in merch, Travis was playing PBR-soaked hole-in-the-walls and releasing meaningful music for free. This may be lost on much of Travis’ 57 million Instagram followers, but it’s not lost on the artist himself.
“As you grow, there are newcomers,” Scott said at the University of Texas in April. “There’s probably so many people who go, ‘Oh Trav, he made ‘SICKOMODE,’ but don’t know about the Trav that made Owl Pharoah and Days Before Rodeo — some of my favorite albums.”
Amassing a cult following and available for free online download, the two uncharged albums validated Scott’s sketches of what hip-hop could look and sound like as he ascended from unique understudy to fully-fledged superstar. Both projects started to stamp a young kid from Texas then existing between worlds while trying to create his own.
Courted by Kanye West as a college dropout living out of a friend’s car, Scott saw a vision, bet on himself, and negotiated his future. Soon, years of self-funded studio sessions led to production placement for Jay-Z and features for Diplo.
It would crystalize on Days Before Rodeo: the free album that placed Travis on the path from DatPiff servers to Forbes covers.
After a decade of opulent obscurity, Days Before Rodeo is re-releasing on streaming platforms, as announced by Scott at Fanatics Fest. The pivotal project is already being bundled with merch in pre-sale packages, introducing new fans to old work while rewarding early adopters for their patience.
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Days Before Rodeo ahead of its streaming release, Boardroom explores the behind-the-scenes sweat equity that set Travis up for commercial acclaim.
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Couch Surf Sabbatical
Travis Scott spent his youth between Houston and Missouri City, partaking in high school theater and throwing backyard parties.
His academic days spanned San Antonio and Austin, writing papers about Ye’s label G.O.O.D. Music before calling it quits on college to pen his chapter of said story.
Not telling his mother he stopped school, Scott started sending beats to Ye’s engineer, Mike Dean, a Houston native he noticed in liner notes. Having worked with the Geto Boys and UGK, Dean soon saw in a 20-something Scott what the world would come to find.
“Hunger and determination to be the best at what he does,” Dean told XXL in 2021. “He does more in the studio than anyone gives him credit for from choosing beats to writing lyrics. He’s really good at all-around producing, being an artist, and overseeing an album.”
An in with Kanye’s camp kept Scott close enough to his dream to fly cross-country for 15-minute meetings in LA and couch surf in NYC just so he could create at Just Blaze‘s Stadium Red studio.
“I was homeless, in the street in my friend’s car,” Scott told Peter Rosenberg in 2013. “I cried at least once on that mission. I was in LA for like seven months.”
All the while, Scott perfected production for other artists while creating his own sound. An early upload on YouTube called “Love Sick” caught the ear and eye of T.I. and others.
Despite industry attention, Scott stayed patient.
“People wanted my publishing before they wanted to sign me to a record deal,” Scott told Sway Calloway in 2014. “I said, ‘Fuck that shit.'”
But then, a call from Kanye changed everything. In time, Ye presented a plan to bring Travis into G.O.O.D. Music as a producer, while T.I. signed Travis to rap for Grand Hustle.
“We ended up doing a deal with T.I. at the same time as Kanye,” said Scott. “Kanye brought me to New York, I was working on ‘Mercy,’ we did more music, and I played him Owl Pharoah before it came out. From there? We clicked.”
After years of crashing on couches, Scott was co-signed in every sense of the term by one-half of “Swagga Like Us.” Soon, he was being flown out by the artist he wrote college essays about, tasked with beat-building and soaking up masterclass coaching.
“I was scoring the Cruel Summer movie,” Scott said. “I was in Hawaii, and [Ye] and me formed a relationship. He’s one of my biggest mentors, like a dad, lowkey.”
The next few years would be better than any internship he would’ve landed in school. He’d help Kanye craft “New Slaves” and “Guilt Trip” off of Yeezus, diving deep into his production programs on his laptop while Virgil Abloh worked on aesthetics.
The work with Ye took him to APC meetings in Paris and studio sessions with platinum artists, presenting Scott as an architect for what music could and would sound like in the 2010s and beyond.
Soon, it was time to step out with his own songs.
World Melter
By 2012, Travis Scott had production credits on Cruel Summer and beat requests from Hov.
What he didn’t have was his own album or a unified audience to back it.
Aiming to bridge the gap between trending trap and auter-level art, 2013’s Owl Pharoah was released as Scott’s solo debut for free download on the iTunes Store. The project merged artists of all origins, introducing Scott’s eery, eclectic, and electric world.
“My whole thing was creating a vibe for people like me,” Scott said.
Spending hours at end in a North Hollywood studio, Travis and longtime friend Chase B finished Owl Pharoah miles away from their home of Houston, breaking boundaries on sound and industry standards.
“I watched him make ’16 Chapels,’” Chase B told Boardroom in 2023. “I remember hearing it like, ’There is no doubt about this going where it needs to go.’”
“I’m trying to revamp the culture,” Scott said. “Give it a new sound.”
While Owl Pharoah failed to top year-end lists, it garnered underground acclaim from those looking for that new sound Scott saw but few knew existed.
“I listen to mad Bjork and MGMT,” Scott told DJ Envy in 2014. “I used to compare myself to MIA, Kid Cudi, or Kanye. But now? I’ve created my own sound, wave, and cult following.”
Soon, that cult following included the likes of Drake, Rihanna, and Madonna. Still, he’d make money and relationships through third parties before selling solo work for millions.
Travis, the Curator
Mounting momentum from Yeezus and Owl Pharoah took Travis all over the country, performing on stage at Fader Fort in Austin and walking the runway for Mark McNairy in NYC. He’d score endorsement deals with Reebok, become the poster boy for Been Trill, and direct music videos for himself and others.
Although T.I. and Epic Records had the rights to his formal debut, Rodeo, fans needed something to hold them over.
“With albums, it’s a process,” Chase said. “We didn’t want to take too long between Owl Pharoah and Rodeo.”
Supporting acts ranging from The Neighborhood to Juicy J and Project Pat, Travis perfected his live show in front of diverse audiences while working sonically behind the scenes. The stars aligned in Georgia when a performance gap birthed what is now known as Days Before Rodeo.
“We were on tour and had a week and a half in Atlanta,” Chase said. “Metro [Boomin], Sonny Digital, all these guys came. Travis made all these songs with no intention. It was like, ‘Oh shit, we might have a project.’ That’s why it’s called Days Before Rodeo.”
Hitting hip-hop’s hottest market, Scott sought the city he credited with having the best source of sonics from rapping to producing. Much like Dr. Dre dialed Scott Storch to play piano on “Still D.R.E.” and Snoop Dogg to lace the hook, Travis connected dots all over Days Before Rodeo by blending the pitched vocals of Young Thug, dark drums of Lex Luger, and triplet flow of the Migos.
“That sounds like nothing to me,” Sway Calloway said in 2014. “It’s like new food; you’ve never tasted anything like that.”
“Mamacita” worked on New York radio while fan favorites like “Skyfall” landed like they were from another planet. Pairing The 1975 with Big Sean showed Scott as a risk-taker while “Backyard” spoke to Scott’s depth and vulnerability as a storyteller.
Days Before Rodeo solidified Scott as an artist who could create and curate, learning from the best before him and accessing tomorrow’s talent. In execution, it was Travis’ answer to The College Dropout or The Chronic despite being a digital download
“Don’t undermine this because we didn’t put a price tag on it,” said Scott.
Ten years later, it’s back for the first time with all the sweat equity paying off.
Digital Deluxe
Years before Astroworld went quadruple-platinum or Utopia topped the charts, Travis Scott was stage-diving into crowds that had never heard his music.
Pouring his all into live performances, Scott became a road warrior known for turning up at a skatepark in Miami and calling out Money Mayweather’s section at appearances in Las Vegas. Pulling punk energy from the Texas soil paved the way for Days Before Rodeo, the free album that projected Scott’s superstar ascent but existed only through SoundCloud streams and YouTube rips for the last decade.
Until now.
On Aug. 23, 2024, Days Before Rodeo will be released on streaming services, already available for $4.99 digital deluxe or in physical form as part of apparel bundles topping out at $125. The anniversary album is said to include unreleased tracks from the same sessions, mixed and mastered by Mike Dean of Day 1 fame.
“To watch him grow from being a producer who used to send me beats to becoming one of the top artists in the world?” Dean said. “He’s a beast.”
Days Before Rodeo is a project that could come off as completely foreign or brand new to millions of his fans despite being amongst his personal favorites. A 14-year-old fan who discovered Scott through Fortnite was not getting fed “Basement Freestyle” on Kidz Bop nor navigating NahRight at age 4.
But now, Spotify, Apple Music, and TIDAL will deliver Days Before Rodeo straight to their AirPods. Commercially, merch sales and vinyl presses could make millions for the project once handed out for free.
It’s a telling case study of how music is merchandised in 2024 and what the appetite for new nostalgia is. Conversely, it’s the origin story for a 33-year-old artist who emerged from couch-surfing for a record deal to making music with Rihanna, sneakers with MJ, and turning his backyard parties in Texas into $100 million tours.
Ask Scott, and it’s as much about will as skill. It’s as much about his home base of Houston as it is about Fanatics Fest stages in New York or audiences of 80,000 in Milan.
“Perseverance got me in front of Kanye eating fucking Taco Bell,” said Scott. “My whole idea was to separate what people might think Texas is about.”
Judging by the roars from fans in NYC, the Lone Star superstar is still inverting expectations all by digging deep into the music and state that made him.
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