6 Things We Learned From Travis Scott's 'In Camera' Interview

Travis Scott sat down for an extended interview with Lou Stoppard as part of the 'In Camera' project. Here's what we learned.

View this video on YouTube

youtu.be

Show Studio's In Camera series is a rare opportunity to get artists and tastemakers in front of the camera for an extended period of time, dealing with questions from their fans, friends, and even their family. Previous guests have included the likes of Kanye West and Lady Gaga, and subjects field the most random questions you can possibly imagine.

The latest subject to go through the treatment is Houston native Travis Scott, who is having himself quite the year in 2017. His own upcoming projectAstroworld, and a promised collaboration with Quavo are two of the most anticipated albums of the year, and his wide-spanning tour has been a constant source of headlines. Things couldn't be going better for him this year.

But his upcoming music wasn't the only thing on the minds of the people who care about him. Scott got asked a variety of questions during his In Camera session, and though he was sort of spaced out for some of it, he gave some funny, sometimes revealing answers about what's on his mind. You can watch the full interview up top, but we've marked a few important moments during the interview below.

Scott claims he once got high in Bob Dylan's tour bus (15:15)

Questioned by his pal Bella Hadid on the craziest place he's ever gotten high—wouldn't you like to be friends with her?—Scott pondered for a second before confessing he'd toked up in the vehicle of a music legend.

"Bob Dylan's tour bus, parked up in Rick Rubin's backyard," said Scott. "Smoked out, closed out."

It's not clear whether Scott got high with Dylan (or Rubin), but talk about upping the ante on stoner stories.

His primary musical goal is to leave the world inspired (19:41)

Scott's last project, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, was notable for the number of high-profile collaborations he had on the record. Listening to him talk now, that choice seems intentional, as he says his primary goal moving forward is to touch as many people as possible with his work.

"Before I leave I just want to leave the whole world inspired. I just want to leave a trail of inspiration, a timeline for where I shifted culture," he said. "I want to be attached to every point of the decade, every year. I try to do it all the time, every year ... whether I work with artists, whether I work with other producers, I just try to transition someone or somebody."

He doesn't want to get too political with his music (20:50)

In 2017, artists know good and well just how quickly things can go sideways if you get overly political. Scott doesn't want to avoid the topic of politics altogether, but he claims he wants to be selective with the issues he tackles in his music, because he doesn't want to deaden the impact of what he does share with the world.

"Politics is such a controversial thing, and it's so like, tit-for-tat, and as soon as you speak your opinion you're fighting a million people," he said. "Playing sideline when shit's going wrong is never a good thing, and there's definitely a lot of issues to be spoken out on and can be dealt with ... especially being African American, we got a lot of shit going against us. So inspiring kids of my hue, I got a big, big, big fucking job. So I kind of just don't want to bleed them out with the wrong message.

Scott wants to study architecture at Harvard after his third album (26:00)

If you thought rapping and producing were Scott's only interests, you thought wrong. His friend inquired about a goal they had together for their future, and Scott admitted he still plans to take a brief break from music to commit himself to the study of architecture.

"Me and my friend Dozie are supposed to go to Harvard, go to architecture school at Harvard," he said. "I think after my third album, I'm going to do it after my third album."

Scott thinks people are only real at nighttime (32:30)

It probably shouldn't be a surprise that the rapper who made a song called "Through the Late Night" would prefer night time to day time. But Scott talked a bit about his preference for life at night, which he says brings out the true side of people.

"Everything's for real [at night], daytime everything is fake. No one is ever real in the day time," he said. When the interviewer pointed out they were conducting the interview during the day, Scott had a quick retort. "I don't live in the daytime, I just came out for y'all."

Scott thinks more young artists should go independent (33:15)

After acknowledging bars from Jay Z's latest project about artists needing to help one another out, Scott said his biggest advice to artists on the come up would be to try to carve out your own lane if it's at all possible.

"If you can do it by yourself, oh my God do it by yourself. It's way iller," he said. "Home studios is the most littest shit of all-time dude, trust me, I'm doing albums in my crib. You can do your own album in your crib, you don't need all that crazy shit man. Just go crazy, know how to mix, and then boom dude, fuckin SoundCloud."

Latest in Music