Asking your typical Houston rap nerd about artists on the verge or in the national spotlight usually circles the same cliched wagon. Normally they'd list off your usual suspects, sprinkle off a couple indie darlings who hang in different sects of the city, all while being very political and not wanting to step on any toes. Because most rappers in Houston who become known in Houston... usually craft their initial buzz in Houston.
Not 19-year old Travis $cott.
Up until people bootlegged bought Kanye West and G.O.O.D. Music's Cruel Summer LP this fall, Travis $cott only existed to them as a kid who would randomly pop up on hip-hop blogs such as ILLROOTS and smaller Texas blogs who knew of the kid.
About.com even listed Scott as one of their 10 Houston Artists to Watch this year. Then Complex came and kicked in the door.
Outside of that, very little has been reveled publicly about the 19-year old rapper/producer who grew up in Missouri City, went to Elkins and then seemingly got shot out of a damn cannon to link up with Mike Dean and Kanye West. Press-wise, the most engaging thing on him may be his interview with ItsTheReal that even name-dropped Houston's own OG Che$$.
Dollar $ign rappers, I tell you.
Musically, $cott gets picked on for being heavily influenced by West. He'll forthrightly deny such a thing, but there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. West's 808s & Heartbreak album essentially snowballed into giving us Drake, and look how that's turned out.
G.O.O.D. Music picked up $cott on the rapper's pure potential, which we can easily note because his chops are well-rounded for someone who seems like they've been recording with their laptop in this "anybody can be a new-age star"-crazed genre. Cuts like "Animal," with T.I., didn't build with the usual flair that a Tip-assisted record would, but then you have moments like "16 Chapels," "Old English" and "XX," where it's clear that solo-wise, $cott can hold his own.
So that's the buzz on Travis $cott, a kid who's utilized his production chops and sheer sense of opportunity to land smack in the middle of hip-hop's most diverse crew. Until we get a long, flowing interview, he'll remain obscure through his Tumblr page, a hipster-like Twitter handle and quirky interviews, where he'll do the kinda-G.O.O.D Music thing of dissing Drake -- but the politically smart thing of admitting he's a Drake fan.
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