Chris’ Side: Utopia
Another year, Another Grammys where Travis Scott gets snubbed for album of the year. Although not as egregious as the 2019 Grammys where Cardi B won for Invasion of Privacy over Travis Scott’s Astroworld, the 2024 Grammys was yet another snub for the Houston-born rap superstar. Killer Mike won Best Rap Album for his 2023 project Michael over Travis’ Utopia, an absolute snub.
Music can never be objective. That is the ironic part about the Grammys, which attempts to give objective awards to music that is definitely not objective. However, one of the only objective categories we do have to judge music is commercial success, of which Utopia dwarfed Michael. Utopia sold 500,000 copies in its first week, with Michael failing to reach 100,000. Utopia has reached well over a Billion streams on streaming platforms, while Michael has barely over 50 million, and that’s including its post-Grammy win bump in streams. Music is absolutely subjective, but Utopia has objectively captivated the subjective preferences of much more people than Michael ever did. Travis Scott left for 5 years after releasing Astroworld, only to come back to drop an innovative project with excellent production from Mike Dean, that simultaneously captured popular music as well as critical reception, something Michael failed to do in its run before the Grammys. Michael doesn’t even beat Utopia all that much in a critical sense either. Famed internet reviewer Anthony Fantano of Theneedledrop gave Michael a light 6 out of 10 while giving Utopia a strong 7. On music review aggregator website Metacritic, Michael had a weighted average of 77 out of 100 while Utopia had a 67. Michael and Utopia are similar albums from a critical standpoint, but Utopia dwarfs it from a commercial perspective. The worst part about this Grammys was the fact that by all accounts, Michael wasn’t even the most critically acclaimed rap album of the year. That award would go to Scaring the Hoes by JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown, a lauded album from two of hip-hops best underground artists. The metacritic weighted score for that album was an 86, while also receiving a light 9 from Theneedledrop. Simply put, Michael was not the most critically acclaimed album nor was it the most commercially successful, and did not have enough blend of the two to even remotely deserve the award for Best Rap Album. If the argument was being made that Scaring the Hoes deserved Best Rap Album, I could see that argument, mainly because the idea of what should be “best” is different, depending on if you see commercial success or critical success as more important. However, when the Grammy went to neither Utopia nor Scaring the Hoes, the snub conversation had to be had, and it is completely deserved.
The Grammys tried to pander to the “underground” hip-hop fans without knowing what underground hip-hop fans actually like, and ended up giving the award for Best Rap Album to an album that was not the best, nor the most popular.
Henry’s side: MICHAEL
The best rap album category has been a flawed aspect for the grammys over the past 10 years. Every year, many people think that some albums were snubbed; however,that was not the case with Travis Scott’s “Utopia”. “Utopia” isn’t a bad album; it actually is one of the stronger additions of Travis’ discography. However, “Michael” was the best album out of the nominees, which is why it received the award.
Both albums are very different and shine in different places. “Michael manages to excel in the aspects that many praise “Utopia” for. The main highlight of “Utopia” is its production, which sets Travis up for success. Nevertheless, “MICHAEL” still has a lot to offer in terms of production with less of a focus on it. Tracks like “SHED TEARS” and “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS” feature neat samples, and with other songs such as “EXIT 9” and “SOMETHING FOR JUNKIES” displaying similar rapping on more fun trap beats. Lyrically, Killer Mike offers more. Travis’ music typically doesn’t have a focus on lyrics, which isn’t a bad thing, Killer Mike offers a more complete album that stands out in every aspect.
Additionally, “Michael” only has 14 tracks compared to Utopia’s 19. Utopia does not need to be this long, which is the reason it has a few unnecessary filler songs, such as “PARASAIL”, “LOOOVE”, and “LOST FOREVER”, which includes a Westside Gunn feature that feels out of place and does not fit with Travis’ style. While a few songs on “MICHAEL” are a bit weak and his style of rapping does get redundant at times, every track still feels key to the structure of the album.
One advantage of both albums is that they both have loaded feature lists. “MICHAEL” features CeeLo Green, Young Thug, 6LACK, Andre 3000, Future, 2 Chainz, Ty Dolla $ign, Eryn Allen Kane multiple times, and many others. “Utopia” includes Drake, Beyonce, The Weeknd, SZA, and many others. However, “MICHAEL” utilizes its features in a way that still mostly showcases Killer Mike’s rapping. On multiple songs on Utopia, Travis Scott allows his features to take over the track too much. This occurs on songs like “TELEKINESIS”, “TIL FURTHER NOTICE”, “CIRCUS MAXIMUS”, and “K-POP”. This isn’t always a bad thing; in fact, some of the best features are in these songs, including one of SZA’s best features of her career on “TELEKINESIS”. However, this makes it feel less cohesive and makes the listener want more from Travis, especially if they are a fan. For example, on “TIL FURTHER NOTICE”, Travis has one of his best verses on the record to end the album, but it made me wanting more from him on that track.“MICHAEL” is also paced better than “Utopia”.
Many fans of Travis were upset because they thought the Grammys picked a “nobody” to win. While “Utopia” has been a far more impactful album so far, that does not disqualify “MICHAEL” from winning the award. Out of all of the albums that were nominated, it felt the most complete and consistent, making it deserving of the award.
Utopia Album Cover
