Astroworld rapper Travis Scott (real name Jacques Webster) has released many hits over the years and remains one of the most exciting and creative artists in the trap genre. Following the unfortunate crowd crush tragedy of 2021, the lyricist took a two-year hiatus. However, during his break, fans had plenty of material to listen to as Scott has an extraordinary discography, but few know that one of his 2015 releases was initially intended for Kanye West.
Webster’s debut album, Rodeo, was a highly successful project and put the Houston icon on the map. Released through T.I’s label Grand Hustle, the body of work debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and saw contributions from the likes of Pharrell and The Weeknd. Supported by two singles, ‘3500’ and ‘Antidote,’ it was the former that was made for Kanye West.
Released as the lead single for Rodeo, ‘3500’ was created in Malibu with Kanye West. Few know that for an extended period, Scott was an in-house producer for West’s record label G.O.O.D Music and during one of their studio sessions, Scott hit gold. The Texan’s vocal for ‘3500’ was of interest to Kanye, who performed some magic on the beat and turned it into a masterpiece of a single. However, he wanted it to appear on his album, The Life Of Pablo.
In a 2015 interview with Billboard magazine, Webster elaborated, detailing, “‘3500’ was something that was supposed to be on the Ye album. Something I did in Malibu, and that beat sounded completely different. That hook came cause Ye put my verse in the ASR and chopped it up.”
He continued, “[3500] was going to be his single, but he was working on his album so long, and my album was coming up, so I was like, ‘Yo, I wanna f*ck with this.’ I was supposed to get a Ye feature for that, and I ended up re-doing the beat. This shit wasn’t like where producers had a beat and sent it in. Every beat on this album was made from scratch.”
The song was named ‘3500’ as, in 2015, a celebrity news headline sweeping the nation was that Kim Kardashian (Kanye’s then-wife) had bought a $3,500 fur coat for their daughter North West. You can listen to the track in the below.
