Musical artist Travis Scott has officially gone mainstream. With the release of his latest (and what many are calling his greatest) album Astroworld, Travis Scott has been making more money than most of us could ever dream of. Astroworld is officially eligible for platinum status in the United States, and Travis has also been able to sell a great deal of merchandise to new and old fans alike.

When I first listened to Astroworld, I was in absolute awe. As a fan of Travis, I had been waiting for this project since May of 2016 until it finally dropped in August of 2018. The album certainly has major strengths that should not be overlooked. Many critics claim that it is Travis Scott's most cohesive project to date, and this cannot be denied. When I listened to the album, I felt like I was in a theme park enjoying one hell of a ride. That's how the album was supposed to make me feel, and I, along with hundreds of other people, loved that. Besides the cohesiveness, there were multiple fantastic songs on the album, thanks to excellent beats and vocals.

Now, as I try to distance myself from my bias toward Travis as a fan, I realize that there is more than meets the eye here. Some of the ways that Travis went about releasing, composing, and generally compiling the album take away from his accomplishment, in my opinion. It is important to note that these reasons become more apparent when comparing Astroworld to his two albums released prior (Rodeo and Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight).

My first criticism is the way that Travis Scott utilized his features.Travis is no stranger to having many features on his albums. Rodeo featured 11 artists, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight featured 14 artists, and Astroworld featured a whopping 21 artists. It is clear that Travis went above and beyond with features on Astroworld, and perhaps he went too far. It is clear that one of Travis Scott's main goals with this album was to appeal to the largest audience possible. This would explain the overabundance of features, to the point where some of them felt forced on certain songs. A perfect example of this was Nav's feature on "Yosemite," which felt unnecessary and added in at the last second. Another example is the fact that Swae Lee had a verse on "R.I.P. Screw" that left me wanting more from him. It was as if Travis added him in there simply to get another fanbase fiending for a song. Therefore, compared to how well put together the features are on other albums, I think Astroworld uses features not for artistic purposes, but monetary means.

Another major issue I had was with the way Travis went about getting album sales. The man made a platinum album, but he went about it in a cheap way. Selling merchandise along with the album was certainly a brilliant business move on Travis' part, but selling a digital album copy with each piece is a cheap way to get to platinum. Clearly aiming to capitalize on the massive number of people willing to buy scores of Astroworld merchandise, Travis took the cheap way out to platinum. It reminds me of when U2's album was automatically downloaded to iPhones which in turn boosted their album "sales."

My last point is likely also my most controversial: I think both Rodeo and Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight have, overall, better sounding songs. Don't get mixed up; Astroworld is probably Travis Scott's best project to ever be put together as a whole. The difference is that the songs on this album were meant for a larger audience. Rodeo and Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight were fantastic albums with beautiful and unique songs such as "Maria I'm Drunk," "90210," "Guidance," "SDP Interlude" and more. Astroworld is a theme park blend of music: you have your Drake banger, your sex-driven Weeknd song, your young heads Gunna song, et cetera, et cetera. The two songs in which I heard the Travis Scott I know come out most were "Astrothunder" and "Coffee Bean." In my opinion, the artists on the other songs seem to take over and guide the style more. Maybe this is exactly what Travis wanted, almost as if you were going from one ride to another. Whether or not this is the case, I still think it weakens the album as a whole. His past albums seemed to be more expressive artistically as well as sonically from himself.

Of course, all of this is up for debate. My opinion on this album does not change the fact that it is by far Travis Scott's most successful album to date, and that should be celebrated. Nonetheless, I hope to see greater growth on his future albums and am already getting excited for the next one.