Travis Scott continues his journey back to the proverbial center, several months after the Astroworld Festival tragedy that resulted in 10 deaths. This week, billboards have been popping up in California that seem to promote Scott‘s long-awaited album Utopia. Alongside the I-10 highway, passersby will notice short messages (including one with the Cactus Jack logo) that seem to push them in the direction of this year’s Coachella festival, where Scott was originally set as a 2022 headliner:
“PSST… Looking for UTOPIA? WRONG WAY!”
Back in December, Coachella heads decided to remove Scott from their original line-up. This was then followed by Kanye West taking over the honor — a controversial one given both Ye’s own off-the-court antics and an Instagram post that proclaimed Scott has a performance guest during Ye’s set. Nontheless, Ye has since dropped out of the festival, with The Weeknd becoming the new official replacement (a move that is shaky in its own right).
It’s been four years since Travis Scott released his third studio LP Astroworld, which contained 17 tracks and a slew of assists from Kid Cudi, Frank Ocean, Drake, James Blake, 21 Savage, Swae Lee, Gunna, Quavo, the late Juice Wrld, and more. While already considered a hip hop frontrunner at the time, it was Astroworld that essentially catapulted the Houston star to the forefront of music as a whole. In addition to receiving widespread acclaim, that project also skyrocketed to the top of the Billboard 200 thanks to 537,000 album equivalent units sold during its first week of release, subsequently crossing the Platinum mark four times over. Not counting the chart-topping JACKBOYS compilation in 2019, he has since been working on Utopia, while keeping fans fed with loose cuts like “HIGHEST IN THE ROOM,” “THE SCOTTS” with Kid Cudi, “FRANCHISE” with Young Thug and M.I.A., “ESCAPE PLAN,” and “MAFIA.”
Check out the aforementioned billboards below.