Travis Scott – Rodeo (Expanded Edition)
The pivotal release in the soon-to-be-superstar’s career, Rodeo pinpoints the moment the Houston rapper took his murky vision wide-screen, making the Kanye protégé’s syrupy, post-Yeezus goth-rap palatable to the mainstream. There’s a lot going on on Travis Scott’s major-label debut: dirtbag bangers with the distortion turned to 11 (done best on the Swae Lee and Chief Keef collab “Nightcrawler”), unexpectedly catchy sing-along anthems (“Antidote,” at the time Scott’s biggest hit to date), depraved Justin Bieber verses (the wonderfully strange “Maria I’m Drunk”), and grunge-rap numbers on which Kanye threatens to piss on your grave (on, well, take a wild guess). The expanded edition introduces two new songs into the fold: the evil-sounding ScHoolboy Q collab “Ok Alright” and the psychedelic “Never Catch Me,” on which Scott raps, “My fifteen seconds lasted a little longer.” True.