Houston hip-hop newcomer Travis takes flight with ‘Phoenix Mode’
Ashton Travis misses freeways.
The Missouri City native moved to New York a few years back to pursue music. His “Phoenix Mode” EP was released this month. And when he’s back home, he hits the road.
“There’s nothing like getting in a car, just being in there by yourself with your thoughts, listening to your music and just really getting in your zone. Every time I’m back home, I just love to drive and listen to new music that I just worked on,” Travis says. He was recently in Houston to record and visit his family, who are from Guyana and Antigua.
The first line of the first song on “Phoenix Mode,” in fact, is “288 to 610,” referencing two of the city’s freeways. Travis says he also took inspiration from hearing people coming down the street from hundreds of yards away, their speakers rattling in their trunks — a quintessential part of Houston’s hip-hop culture.
“More than any place, more than any person, I think what I really love about Houston the most is just being able to get out of my own head while still being in my own zone by myself. Everything in Houston is spaced out, so it’s always a mini-trip you’re taking,” he says.
The Travis Scott connection
“Phoenix Mode” is a “long overdue” collection of seven songs Travis assembled over the past two years. It’s his first effort for Def Jam Recordings and includes production by Timbaland, Houston native Wolfe de Mchls and frequent collaborator GZMO. Travis, who started as a poet, shifts from rapping to singing atop languid grooves that incorporate pop, reggae and even jazz flourishes.
At times, the sound is reminiscent of another Houston breakout, Travis Scott. It’s no surprise. They met as high school freshmen and became fast friends, bonding over their affinity for music. Travis attended Thurgood Marshall High School; Scott attended Elkins High School.
“The only thing that’s separating us from being brothers is blood. But it’s deeper than that,” Travis says. “We grew up together. We shared the same dreams, the same aspirations.”
Travis attended Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he released several mixtapes and became a campus celebrity of sorts. He left before graduation to pursue music but struggled with self-doubt and finding his next opportunity. He toured as a roadie for other acts and didn’t release another song until 2017. That eventually led to a record deal and the 2018 single ‘Phoenix Mode’
Ashton Travis
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“Death Row” that chronicles his personal struggle.
“I was just so fed up with holding myself back, to the point where it was beyond do or die for me. It felt like I was on death row and there was no other option. I’ve always had a heavy balance of being confident and being insecure,” Travis says. He suddenly lapses into an old poem he’s written.
“There was a span of a couple of years where I was just landscaped with worry/Just centered in a community of envy/Surrounded by neighbors contaminated with symptoms of ignorance/Content to keep me trapped in this misery city ”— that’s really how I felt.”
Conversations about mental health
He sees “Phoenix Mode,” then, as another chance at success, a “second flight,” if you will. The songs were recorded in Houston, New York and Los Angeles, originally with no solid release plan. But Travis believes it’s no accident that “Phoenix Mode” is out in September, his birthday month, in the middle of a pandemic and waves of social unrest.
“This was inevitably how it was supposed to be. I kinda feel like it falls right in line with America at the time. The world now is about to be in phoenix mode,” Travis says. He celebrated with friends, a moment of reflection and a few tequila shots the night of release.
And beyond sales success and the fanbase his music is already cultivating, Travis hopes his music encourages honest conversations about mental health among young, Black men who struggle with the same issues of identity and worth he did while putting “Phoenix Mode” together.
“Mental health is a real thing that people, especially in my community, we don’t really talk about, we don’t really acknowledge. Even beyond that, when we talk about gender roles, a lot of men feel like you can’t express depression or feeling anxiety and emotions of selfdoubt,” he says. “I would rather have a sense of happiness and a sense of peace, being open with myself, than to walk around with a mask on just to make other people happy.
“Everybody can’t be Superman all day. You gotta be Clark Kent. Sometimes you gotta just let people know that you’re just like everybody else.”