If you say “creative force,” “unpredictable,” and “hitmaker” in the mirror three times, Travis Scott will appear behind you blasting “goosebumps” through a boombox. One of hip-hop’s biggest superstars, every Travis Scott album feels like an era—each one arriving with massive hype, spectacle, and a sound that shifts the culture.
Since his 2014 breakout mixtape Days Before Rodeo, LaFlame has dropped four studio albums: Rodeo, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, ASTROWORLD, and UTOPIA. With each release, his vision—and his stages—have gotten bigger. In October 2025, he teased new music on IG, writing: “I been cooooking. Let’s f*cking get it.”
So before whatever’s next, we’re breaking down his discography to decide which Travis Scott album stands at the top.
4. ‘Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight’
Travis Scott’s sophomore album, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight (2016), is a trap-fueled ride packed with hits. The dark, ominous tones from Rodeo are ever-present, and some of the catchier elements are also along for the ride. Coming off the massive success of “Antidote” in 2015, it made sense for LaFlame to double down on something equally infectious—and it worked.
The album has a multitude of hits, including “goosebumps” (with Kendrick Lamar) and “pick up the phone” (with Young Thug and Quavo), while also providing dialed back experiences like “sdp interlude.” That being said, it’s also his least experimental project. That’s not a knock—it’s sleek and replayable—but compared to the world-building of his other bodies of work, it falls short.
Built on polished, formulaic trap production, BITTSM trades Travis’s usual genre-blurring and live instrumentation for a more consistent, autotune-heavy approach. The result is a cohesive, high-energy record built for the aux, but one that doesn’t push boundaries the way his other albums do.
Built on various styles of trap beats, BITTSM follows a bit more of a strict formula than he does on other albums. Throughout his discography, Travis typically incorporates a heavy dose of live instrumentation on a couple of songs per project. He’ll also dip in and out of autotune for some variety, which he almost never does on Birds (it’s almost entirely autotune). All in all, it’s an album full of joints to turn up to, but he has better work.
3. ‘UTOPIA’
UTOPIA is, by far, Travis Scott’s most emotionally vulnerable album. After the ASTROWORLD tragedy, it was clear his next project couldn’t exist in a vacuum. Rather than directly addressing the events, Travis poured that energy into sound and structure, building an album that feels like disarray by design. He envisioned a world of perfect communication to compartmentalize and deal with the events that occurred.
The tracklist listened to in the correct order is chaotic as hell. All of Travis’ other projects are slightly cohesive from song to song, but that isn’t the case with UTOPIA. The sporadic nature of the sounds and subject matter hides the more coded message.
Take songs like “MY EYES,” “DELRESTO (ECHOES),” and “PARASAIL,” spin them together, and notice the similarities. They all reference religion, memory, life, death, or redemption (and moving forward). Each track takes a different approach, blending and bending genres at will, while painting a bigger picture.
Those songs are sandwiched between explosive cuts like the earth-shaking “FE!N (ft. Playboi Carti), “CIRCUS MAXIMUS” (with Swae Lee and The Weeknd), and “TOPIA TWINS” (with Rob49 and 21 Savage), which drag the listener straight back into festival chaos. It’s disjointed on purpose—mirroring the highs and lows of an artist rebuilding after a public fall.
UTOPIA is loud, experimental, and emotional all at once—and while it can feel overwhelming, every listen reveals something new.
2. ‘ASTROWORLD’
Easily his most popular project, ASTROWORLD has racked up over 10 billion streams since its 2018 release and stands as one of the defining rap albums of the late 2010s. It was the moment La Flame’s world fully came to life—complete with amusement park visuals paying homage to his Houston roots, a McDonald’s meal, and an arena-sized fanbase.
Travis didn’t reinvent his formula on ASTROWORLD—he mastered it. The album plays like a crash course in his greatest strength: curation. Every feature, beat switch, and transition feels intentional, pulling from an eclectic roster of artists and sounds that set a new gold standard for psychedelic trap. “CAN’T SAY” featuring Don Toliver didn’t just deliver a chill-inducing hook—it helped launch a new star, proving Travis’ genius lies not just in creation, but in how he assembles it all.
Tracks like “SKELETONS,” “STOP TRYING TO BE GOD,” and “STARGAZING” showcased his ear for detail and range in production. The hits are undeniable, with “SICKO MODE” (featuring Drake) going Diamond and moving over 10 million units. And then there’s “COFFEE BEAN,” a stripped-back closer that peels back the layers, grounding the album in something personal amid the spectacle.
ASTROWORLD was a perfect storm of timing, collaborative talent, and taste—an album that proved just how far Travis’ vision could reach. Few have been able to replicate his formula because, like he said himself, “Who put this shit together? I’m the glue.”
1. ‘RODEO’
While this might sound like an “old Travis Scott was better” kind of answer, that’s far from the case. In some instances, an artist’s earlier work can strike gold because of less industry experience, more willingness to lean into their sonic influences, and a certain hunger that comes with dropping that first album.
Rodeo drops the listener into Travis Scott’s mind, and even the smallest details give deeper insight into his POV at the time. The range between sparse and emotional, to maximalist and “we don’t give a fuck,” makes the Rodeo era something special and uniquely its own.
Starting the album with a spoken-word intro from T.I. already sets Rodeo apart from his other projects, and the album goes on to match every word of the intro perfectly. The run from “Oh My Dis Side (ft. Quavo)” to “Antidote” is rebellious, spaced-out, and ambitious, while carrying an ominous aura that has become LaFlame’s signature throughout his career.
“Impossible” manages to concisely wrap all of those attributes into one song, before dipping down again with “Maria, I’m Drunk,” featuring Young Thug and Justin Bieber—a competitor for the most popular song in his discography.
The rest of the album is a triumphant statement of intent: Travis Scott is here to stay. Every track from “Flying High (ft. Toro y Moi)” to “Never Catch Me” details where he is and where he wants to be. He experiments with multiple different soundscapes, various choices in percussion, vocal approaches—the works. His Ye and Kid Cudi influences bleed through the heaviest in this album, which actually works to his benefit. If Trav is a chef, Rodeo is his cookbook—and still his best work to date.
