Kanye West and Travis Scott’s five best collaborations
Following the release of the new track ‘Father’, Kanye West and Travis Scott have added another song to their long list of musical collaborations. In all that time since they first started working together, it seems they haven’t yet lost their musical chemistry.
Much of Travis’ early success in the music business can be traced to Ye taking him under his wing as he was starting out. Travis was initially signed to TI’s label, but he also did a deal to become an in-house producer for Ye’s GOOD Music. He featured on the 2012 GOOD Music compilation Cruel Summer and later on Ye’s own Yeezus album in ’13, which really cemented Travis’ status as a rising star.
He is as aware as anyone else that he owes his success to Ye, and he has never shied away from saying so. Even at the height of Ye’s recent antisemitism scandals, Travis continued to speak highly of his mentor. “To create music with him, it’s what helped me grow, making a lot of beats,” he told Complex in 2025, “Whether it’s writing and collabing on music and film or clothes or whatever the fuck it is, just constantly learning.”
For more than a decade now, Ye and Travis have been helping with each other’s music and have created a shared discography that is the envy of hip-hop artists everywhere. Here’s a look at the highlights.
Kanye West and Travis Scott’s five best collaborations:
5. ‘Watch’
Initially intended to feature on Travis’ third album Astroworld, the trap song ‘Watch’ ended up being cut from the final tracklist and instead put out as a standalone single in May 2018. It features both Ye and Lil Uzi Vert, the latter of whom uses his verse to brag about his riches, but it’s Ye’s verse that is most interesting.
Ye opens up about his addiction to opioids on the track, a subject that he also addressed in a rambling TMZ interview the same month that ‘Watch’ came out. After generating controversy for comments he made about slavery being “a choice”, Ye explained himself by claiming that he had been “drugged out” owing to an opioid addiction.
4. ‘Can U Be’
‘Can U Be’ is the work of ¥$, Ye’s superduo project with Ty Dolla Sign, with Travis also jumping on for a few lines. Travis is certainly a minor character here, but he plays his part on the song, which had an interesting path to release. It was initially meant to feature on The Life of Pablo, but Ye ultimately decided against that, and the track was left to languish in obscurity.
But things changed after a hacker group got their hands on the track. Then, in 2024, a group of fans managed to raise $25,000 to buy the song from the hackers, before releasing it in full online, with various versions of the track later officially released by Ye.
3. ‘Wash Us in the Blood’
With a pounding, industrial beat, ‘Wash Us in the Blood’ is an intense listen. Lyrically, it’s confronting, too, as it dips into the most evocative Christian imagery that there is, namely, of washing in the blood of Christ. Ye and Travis also touch on subjects ranging from mass incarceration, capital punishment, slavery and genocide.
The song is undoubtedly challenging, but both the critics and the public liked it. Despite its heavy sound and themes, the track broke into the charts and became one of 2020’s biggest gospel songs. Only a person like Ye, with help from his protégé Travis, could manage to find mainstream success with a number like this.
2. ‘Piss On Your Grave’
Featured on Travis’ Rodeo album from 2015, this track could very easily have lived another life entirely. Rumour has it that Ye had initially intended to use it for his own album, and he wanted another collaborator to jump onto it. ‘Piss On Your Grave’ was apparently meant to feature a Beatle, in the form of Paul McCartney.
The song is another aggressive, confrontational number, this time seeing Travis and Ye facing down their enemies and, basically, threatening to piss everywhere. The pair seem to be dissing a corporate class of old, white elites who doubted, patronised and sought to exploit them.
1. ‘Praise God’
Another religious effort from Ye and Travis, ‘Praise God’ also features Baby Keem, and it sees the trio, as the title suggests, praising God’s impact upon their respective lives. Most poignantly from Ye’s perspective, it also features a recording of his beloved late mother Donda reciting a section of the poem, ‘Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward’ by Gwendolyn Brooks.
“We gon’ praise our way out the grave, dawg,” the song’s chorus goes, “Livin’, speakin’, praise God / Walkin’ out the graveyard back to life I serve, follow your word, see with new sight, into the night”. It seems to be about Ye placing his faith in God to help him turn his life around, and in light of the mistakes Ye has so publicly made, there’s a definite poignancy to it.