Finally, A Travis Scott Related Post (Mix)

Hello Everyone!

I know it’s been a while since i’ve uploaded a blog post on here but i’m back! I took a hiatus to focus on the magazine. I wanna start off by thanking all of you for the amazing support and love you’ve shown me. The feedback I got on the first issue of my magazine was overwhelming.

I had stopped making mixes a while back. If you don’t know why already, the reason was that I was using Garageband and I lowkey felt like if people found out they would bag on me. To be completely honest I didn’t wanna learn a new program either because I was already familiar with Garageband (for the most part). So, I just let the mix phase of mine die out.

I ended up getting my magazine in the hands of an artist I really admire and respect. They flipped through the pages and saw the page I included briefly explaining why I had brought making mixes to a halt. Shockingly enough he told me “You were ashamed of using Garageband? I still use Garageband! I don’t give a f*ck what people say! I took what I knew and perfected it.” Now, that was motivation enough for me because he made a good point and I was even further ashamed for having let the fear of peoples judgement get in the way of doing something I enjoyed.

Since then, I have taken to youtube to learn more about what Garageband is capable of. I’ve also watched walk through videos from multiple producers to pick up some tips.

I typically had centered my previous mixes around certain moods I was feeling at the time. I couldn’t pinpoint any certain emotion when making this mix so I just opted for something I loved. Travis Scott’s music. Now, I didn’t want to make a mix full of songs you all probably have already heard, or hear often, so I went into the Travis Scott archives and dug up some old gems. This blog is all about shining light on the neglected aspects of music and let me tell you, a good majority of these songs are forgotten about and really shouldn’t be! You day 1 ragers probably know this entire tracklist like the back of your hand, but for those of you who are still exploring Travis’s music, I hope you get to take something new out of this mix. Most of his older songs are pretty repetitive, in my opinion, so I tried my best to rework those the most. Whether you know the songs in this mix or not, I hope you enjoy!

TESTING - Causing Controversy

ima start off by saying i really like this album. now, before you start arguing with me in your head, hear me out haha. I had tweeted that I think this album might be Rocky's '808s & heartbreak' and whewwww y'all came for me. let me just say, im not directly comparing the two ALBUMS. im comparing the situations. when 808's dropped everyone hated it. it was nothing like what Kanye had previously put out. People thought 808's was "boring" and "weird". fast forward to now and we recognize 808's and Heartbreak as a CLASSIC, an album that really shifted music from that point forward. maybe not right away, but we listen to music today and any "banger" without heavy 808's slapped on, isn't a "banger". not only that but just the entire sound of hip hop took a shift because we were introduced to a different sound. 

artists drop albums that establish themselves and bring them traction into the industry. once artists have an actual outlet and audience, they’re able to put out projects & still have listeners regardless. sure, we may view some of these projects as "lazy" moments where music is put out without thought. but, we have to shift our perspectives of artists and music when we get into new songs, ep’s or albums. artists create ART. without labels, just art. when we break it down to something that simple we are able to listen with fresh ears. 

oftentimes we go into it expecting a similar sound to an artists older work. however, how do we expect music to grow and evolve if the same artists are constantly putting out the same sounding music? not only that, but lets bring up the fact that when an artist DOES have a consistent sound, people complain about the artist remaining stagnant in their art. artists need to evolve. artists WANT to evolve. putting out the same thing over and over is what will ultimately be the death of an artist. artists can feel themselves lacking when they are not able to put out different things. in turn, audiences also feel artists are lacking when they don't put out new things, so they move on to newer artists putting new content out. 

we've seen and continue to see this with a ton of other artists. when Tyler the Creator put out cherry bomb, everyone hated it. a good amount of people still do. but when you really take the time to understand what Tyler was doing with Cherry Bomb, you come to respect it. I had listened to a Tyler interview where he explained he went into creating the album just "wanting to make music." He said, “everyone hated it. Except for, like, real music lovers who cares about drums. Like, I opened a rap album with a rock song.” Tylers 'Flower Boy' was also controversial. people loved it. but no one expected it. Tyler, as an artist, knew he wanted to put out something different, and he did. now lets take a look at Travis Scott. his fans are getting tired of the same huncho jack/birds sound he's had. his features are considered lackluster because they all sound similar. so now we have fans waiting for his album Astroworld, gunning for something different than what we’ve been getting from him. he releases the same type of music, fans will be enraged. he releases something different, fans who love his current stuff will be enraged at the difference.

so i beg the question, at what point do we stop comparing the art these artists are putting out? we’ve stopped taking the music simply for what it is. artists feel proud of what they put out. Rocky specified this album was “experimental”. he literally titled the album TESTING. this is certainly not something Rocky feels will sit beautifully with every audience, BUT he’s confident in it enough for us to appreciate it. the album has a consistent vibe but the songs don’t all sound like the same song. this album is really beautiful in my opinion. i’m not saying its album of the year but i definitely think it’s good. 

LISTEN UP

hello!! 

let me take a moment to start off saying, this blog is a part of me. however, as much as its a huge part of me, i have always wanted to keep it up to spread new things to others. as time passed and my creative blocks stood at the forefront, i made a big realization. basically, this blog started off as a music blog as you all may know. but what a lot of you might NOT know is that that was never the initial intention. I wanted an all around blog. something for everything. now that was really ambitious to tackle on head first, so i gravitated around music because i feel like a lot of my inspiration and influence stems from music. i wanted this to be a safe space for all creatives and artists, i just chose to start off with music. i wanted to include photography, clothing pieces, music, drawings, paintings, EVERYTHING. I honestly have been so stuck with this blog, no lie, but i couldn't figure out why. its apparent now that i need to just put out content that doesn't fit into a box. i don't wanna force myself to feel like i need to solely put out content i think others WANT.  so heres me apologizing for not being as transparent as i really wanted to be on this blog. im going to start. i know this should have been the intent from the start but we all gotta start somewhere right? 

a bit of an explanation on whats been going on:

- not much honestly hahaha

but really. in the past few months the only real changes i've been dealing with are working full time and having a full time bf simultaneously hahahahah. i was working two jobs up until last week, meaning i was working 7 days with a 1-2 hour daily commute tackled on. so... i didnt have much time to myself to say the least but now i have two days off. which is a huge weight off my shoulders because i not only have time to accomplish the bigger things i had been putting off, but even the small little things that have built up over time. 

this post is all over the place but basically what im trying to say is this will still be the blog you know and love, but my heart will be in it more now. i hope you can enjoy it just as much <3 The next couple of posts will be actual topics, and themes and everything but to keep this light i thought id shoot y'all this playlist that i was talking about on my twitter hahaha honestly theres not much to it, and if you don't like this kind of music then you'll prob think i'm lame but i don't care this playlist makes me feel great. ima make it a mix eventually btw.

FLOW Awards

Hi guys!

I know it's been a cool minute since i've posted on here, and the last post was a bit loaded. So, I decided to do something fun and exciting! When this years Grammy nominations went out I had various conversations with people about the nominees and whatnot. A lot of people had their opinions on the choices on this list of nominees (or lack thereof, rather). Many opinions in which I agreed with. As conversations continued, we started giving our own input on who should have been on that list, and what songs/albums should have been included. It was suggested I do my own take on this years Grammy nominations. The logistics behind the Grammys are a bit difficult to understand. Essentially, the nominees have to submit their work, and the time frame isn't just in the current year, but the end of the previous year as well. Which, actually makes a lot of sense as to why a lot of music is left off of these nominations. So instead of getting technical with nominees like the Grammy's, I decided to do my own take on music awards in general. I think there's a ton of music out there that deserves recognition not just solely based off of popularity, sales, or numbers. So I, along with a couple of friends, put together some pretty cool categories and narrowed down fitting nominees. Theres no strict rules on this, and its all opinion based (of course). I know i'll probably get my own backlash on which songs/projects are on here, but I have reasoning behind each and every one. I tried to stray away from super mainstream works just because I feel spreading new music and opening up peoples eyes to different things is more of a feat. However, a lot of these songs HAVE gotten the recognition they deserve, which also means they deserve spots too in my opinion. Like I said, there's no real rhyme or reason behind these nominations. Except for feeling they're the best fitting for the categories we constructed. THE FUN PART OF ALL OF THIS?? Well for starters, I want to keep you all engaged so of course WE'RE DOING VOTING. I really want to see what your opinions are. If you haven't heard of some of these nominees, I encourage you to listen to them!! We have them on here, like I said, for good reason. I'll have every single song in a playlist to make it easier for you guys to listen to any music you're unfamiliar with. Please, take some time and VOTE AWAY! 

This one was done collectively of pretty much the past couple of years. However, I will be doing these quarterly! So every season (summer, spring, fall, winter) from this point forward. And those will be made up of music ONLY within those 3-4 months. I'll also have a suggestion box for other categories you wanna see in upcoming awards! Once again, I want this to be something YOU all can take something out of and really enjoy and look forward to. So, I want to know what you guys want to see in the future!  

VOTE HERE