I’ll be honest, Travis Scott isn’t my cup of tea. I watched the “Sicko Mode” music video once and most certainly approached it with some preconceived notions.
First, whatever the merit of his early work, he’s received a huge boost from Kanye, which feels less good with every passing day — not that every and any artist associated with Kanye needs to be “canceled,” but the association comes to mind regardless. Second, he (or someone on his team) made the game-time decision to remove transgender model Amanda Lepore from the ASTROWORLD album cover. I don’t have much sympathy for the sorts of “misunderstandings” Scott referred to in his social media apology in this regard. When an artist releases something on the scale of ASTROWORLD, there is no reason their whole team shouldn’t be considering the implications of every decision. Maybe I’m holding on too much. To be fair, Lepore is still featured in the booklet accompanying physical editions of the album, and she did acknowledge and accept his public apology. Still, it doesn’t quite sit right.
The music video didn’t do much to alter my thoughts re: Scott and Co., but I don’t necessarily have any complaints. Would I echo the sentiment of Rolling Stone’s review headline, where they liken the “Sicko Mode” music video to “Citizen Kane”?
Uhh … no. But it is a nice homage to Texas, highlighting Houston’s skylines and several neighborhoods, amid Scott riding a horse, Drake walking a dog and plenty of scantily clad women, one of whom is shrunk to such a small size that she can (and does) twerk literally on Drake’s eye. To sum it all up in the YouTube video’s top comment: “Travis Scott music videos are always so fucking crazy and random.” I can’t say in good faith that it’s terribly crazy, but if random is what you came for: enjoy!