5 Things Travis Scott Revealed in First Interview Post Astroworld

After much consideration and conversation with family, Snoop Dogg has decided to give up smoking. The announcement was like an obituary, asking people to “please respect my privacy at this time.” 😂 In other news today:

• Song streams & revenue 💰️ 

• Drake’s surprise album and references in “First Person Shooter” video 🔫 

• 5 things Travis Scott revealed in first interview post-Astroworld 🤯 

• Cugine’s mac & cheese is too thicc for French Montana on Fame & Flavor 🧀 

• New Music Friday releases 💿️ 

• Industry Insights 📈 

Song Streams & Revenue

It’s a new Thursday and a new song revenue chart. As reported by Hits Daily Double, which tracks streaming revenue week over week, the above chart reflects the streaming period from November 3 to 9.

Drake’s “IDGAF” ft. Yeat remains at the top of the chart but dropped 21% in streaming revenue from the previous week. Megan Thee Stallion’s “Cobra” generates $40K in revenue from the single’s first-week streams.

Drake Drops “First-Person Shooter” Video & Surprise EP ‘Scary Hours 3’

A month after Drake dropped For All The Dogs and said he was taking a break from music to focus on his health, he decided not to stand on business by extending his It’s All A Blur tour with J. Cole and dropping a surprise EP, Scary Hours 3 on Nov 17.

He also released the “First Person Shooter” music video with J. Cole, likely to coincide with their tour announcement. Here’s everything you need to know.

‘Scary Hours 3’

Taking to IG to announce the surprise only a day before it drops with a video, similar to what he did for Honestly, Nevermind. It serves as the third installment of his Scary Hours series, which debuted in 2018 and was followed up with Scary Hours 2 in 2021.

Instead of a lengthy IG caption, he gave context to the project in the video’s voiceover. “I’ll say this to you: I feel no need to appease anybody. I feel so confident about the body of work that I just dropped,” he says.

He likened his mental state for this EP to his If You’re Reading This era before saying, “I did those songs in the last five days. I didn’t have one bar written down for those songs on the night that ‘For All the Dogs’ dropped.”

All the references in “First-Person Shooter” Video

The visual for Drake and J. Cole’s latest collab, directed by Gibson Hazard, features many iconic references. You’ve probably already seen the image of Drake and J. Cole playing chess, recreating the internet-breaking chess photo of Lionel Messi and Christian Ronaldo.

But the opening scene is heavy on The Office inspiration from Kevin Malone and the World’s Best Dog trophy to ping-pong in the conference room, Drake and J. Cole lean into the sitcom.

They become the Spider-Man meme illustrating J. Cole’s lyric, “The Spider-Man meme is me looking at Drake.” Paying attention to the details, Drake wears a John Purves’ San Francisco Spiders jersey in this scene. He’s tying the Spider-Man reference in with a legendary hockey player from Toronto.

The video ends with Drake doing Michael Jackson’s classic spin while wearing a sparkly glove, and a massive statue of himself is unveiled. It’s a reference to MJ’s 1995 HIStory teaser and the fact that “First-Person Shooter” was the song that tied Drake with MJ for male solo artist with the most chart-topping hits on the Billboard Hot 100.

5 Things Travis Scott Revealed in First Post-Astroworld Interview

Travis Scott is on the cover of GQ and gave his first interview since the Astroworld tragedy in 2021. In what might be the most words Travis has ever said in an interview, he revealed everything from how his daughter Stormi inspired Utopia and his plans to turn it into a play to his architecture aspirations at Harvard. Full recap below.

#1 Stormi inspired ‘Utopia’

Around 2020, Travis was in the car with Stormi, and she insisted he play an old song. “Her favorite song is ‘Mamacita’—it’s like, her favorite song of all time. She plays it all the time in the car, over and over and over, and that’s from this mixtape, Days Before Rodeo.”

It inspired him to revisit the beginning of his career and the core reason he started making music—production. He started cooking beats again, and the first he made for the album was “Hyaena,” which fittingly ended up being the opening song.

#2 ‘Utopia’ was supposed to be a musical play

Drawing inspiration from Broadway, Travis initially wanted the album’s live component to be a play. “I was trying to bring the idea of Broadway to bigger venues. Like, either, like, plays in stadiums or plays in arenas, but still make it feel like a Broadway bill,” he said.

He envisioned the play’s story as Sin City meets Fantasia, describing it as comic “but try to bring it to 3D.” Live orchestra and heavy drum programming were the vibes. He would still like to do a musical someday.

#3 He wanted to be a nephrologist

After meeting a friend’s uncle who was a nephrologist (kidney doctor), young La Flame was convinced his career path would be owning his practice to do the business and medicine side. “Middle school, high school, that’s all I wanted to do—wanted to be a nephrologist. I used to go and shadow at the hospitals.”

#4 He plans to go to Harvard

“I’m going to Harvard for architecture school,” he says. “I got to work hard to get in. They’re not letting me take any shortcuts.” He’s already looked into the admissions process, visited the campus, and plans to live in Boston and attend school full-time after the Circus Maximus tour.

#5 “My Eyes” is about the Astroworld tragedy

One verse of “My Eyes” has stood out since the album’s release. “I replay them nights, and right by my side, all I see is a sea of people that ride wit’ me. / If they just knew what Scotty would do to jump off the stage and save him a child.”

Speaking on it for the first time, Travis confirms it’s about Astroworld and says, “The song is emotional to me. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album. And that verse means a lot to me.”

Cugine’s Mac & Cheese Was Too Thicc For French Montana

“We’re about to make a mac and cheese that’s gonna sound like your sister’s bedroom,” Cugine says, welcoming French Montana to the second episode of RapTV’s Fame & Flavor. The Coke Boys CEO brought kilos of cheese but didn’t want to eat the finished product. Watch the episode above to find out why.

New Music Friday

Sorry to every artist who planned to drop music tonight because Drake just stole the spotlight with Scary Hours 3. Here’s all the music you can look forward to—categorized by 💿️ for albums and 🎶 for singles:

• 💿️ Scary Hours 3 by Drake

• 💿️ New Blue Sun by André 3000

• 💿️ Welcome 2 ColleGrove by Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz

• 💿️ Nightmares In The Trenches by Lil Durk, OTF

• 💿️ Alone At Prom by Tory Lanez (Deluxe)

• 💿️ ROBOPHOBIA by Earthgang

• 💿️ Rule of Thumb: Rule 1 by E-40

• 💿️ Lost Files by Aitch

• 🎶 “Monaco” by Key Glock

• 🎶 “Spindatbac” by 42 Dugg

• 🎶 “Okay Bet Pt. 1” by Luh Tyler, Skilla Baby

• 🎶 “SLOWWW DIVINNGG” by KayCyy, Lancey Foux

• 🎶 “Get Close (Westside Gunn Remix” by Curren$y, The Alchemist

• 🎶 “STILL THAT WAY” by Jay Rock

• Kanye reportedly has an album in the works with James Blake. Fat Money, who collaborated on Donda 2, revealed the news on X (formerly Twitter) almost a year after Kanye teased the unreleased music.

• Instagram adds new features, including custom AI stickers, photo filters, a clip hub, and more. The AI model lets you “cut out” any object within an image to use on stories and reels.

• André 3000 thanks Jay-Z and Beyoncé for clearing a song on his New Blue Sun album. The track “Ninety-Three ‘Til Infinity And Beyoncé” pays homage to the Carters, the hip-hop group Souls of Mischief, and Toy Story.

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