Travis Scott has given fans an insight into the making of Utopia as the album celebrates its first birthday.
Taking to Instagram on Sunday (July 28), the Houston rapper posted a number of behind-the-scenes photos from the creation of the project, as well as its accompanying music videos and tour.
The collection of images showed Mike Dean wearing a neck cast, Travis working in the studio with Pharrell, Rick Rubin and Dave Chappelle, and director Harmony Korine chatting with Yung Lean on a film set.
Scott also wrote on his Instagram Stories that the Utopia track “My Eyes,” which features Sampha and Bon Iver and finds La Flame touching on the 2022 Astroworld Festival tragedy that killed 10 people, “means everything” to him.
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In the year since its release, Utopia has racked up huge streaming numbers having been streamed over 4.2 billion times on Spotify alone.
The Playboi Carti-assisted “FEIN!” is the most streamed song from the album, totalling 757 plays on the platform.
“I KNOW ?” follows in second place with almost 580 million streams and counting.
Utopia also made a big splash on the charts upon its arrival, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 496,000 first-week equivalent units — the largest sales tally of any rapper in 2023.
Travis Scott recently announced that he was extending his Circus Maximus Tour with a slew of new dates in South America and Australia.
The Cactus Jack honcho will be taking his lucrative trek to Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, as well as both Australia and New Zealand.
“SOUTH AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA WHAT ARE WE DOING,” he wrote on Instagram. “IVE BEEEN WANTED TO BRING A ACTUAL TOUR THERE FOREVER. NOW LETS GET IT.”
Scott will also be performing a one-off special concert at New York’s Met Life Stadium on October 9.
“NEW YORK I WANTED TO DO THIS VENUE DURING THE FIRST LEG. BUT FOOTBALL SEASON HAD IT TIED UP,” he explained. “HAD TO MAKE SURE WE SPIN THE BLOCK. NEW YORK HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE PLACE FOR ME WHEN I PERFORM IT LETS ME KNOW THE REAL METRIC OF THE RAGE. CANT WAITTTTTT FOR ONE NIGHT IN NEW YORK.”
The Circus Maximus Tour is currently in Europe, where it is earning Travis some big bucks.
Billboard, citing data from Live Nation, reported that the tour grossed $23 million over the first seven dates, which began on June 28 at GelreDome in Anthem, Netherlands.
It also included Travis’ biggest headlining show thus far, a July 11 gig at London’s 48,000-seat Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which grossed $6.6 million and broke the stadium’s merch record.
Source hiphopdx.com
