Travis Scott Is Ready to Push His Sound Somewhere New

Travis Scott is having a moment that extends well beyond music right now, and his new Variety cover reflects just how many directions he's pulling in at once. Riding the momentum of his role in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, Scott used the interview to open up about his next album, his first since 2023's Utopia, and made clear he's chasing something that pushes past what he's already done sonically. His current listening list gives a hint of where that might lead — a mix spanning Parliament, Oasis, Van Halen, Don Toliver, Raphael Saadiq, and Daft Punk. Scott also talked about wanting to scale up the live experience itself, describing ambitions to push his shows toward something closer to theater, and referencing an old idea that Utopia was originally conceived as a stage production before it became an album. Utopia's success is hard to overstate — it topped the Billboard 200 with nearly half a million equivalent album units in its first week and earned a Grammy nomination, though it lost out to Killer Mike. That near-miss clearly still motivates him: Scott admitted a Grammy remains a goal, while also expressing genuine interest in one day winning an Oscar, a possibility that feels less far-fetched given his contribution to The Odyssey's end-credits track alongside James Blake and Ludwig Göransson. That crossover ambition extends to his business ventures too. Scott's Cactus Jack recently signed a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures, opening the door for him to develop film, TV, and live-entertainment projects. Paramount's co-chair praised his creative instincts across fashion, music, and film alike, suggesting this partnership is less a side venture and more a natural extension of everything Scott's been building toward.