Travis Scott Turned Miami Into His Utopia

On the morning of January 28, SeatGeek alerted me that pit tickets for Travis Scott's Miami appearance that evening had jumped $1,000 in value. It was my first indication that fans were in for quite the experience at the Kaseya Center.

Scott is no stranger to the spotlight, having amassed multiple platinum albums and collaborations with everyone from Nike to McDonald's, entered a high-profile relationship with Kylie Jenner, and moved on from the crowd-crush incident at the Astroworld Festival. When criticism was lobbed his way after Astroworld, he stepped away for a bit yet still found time to collaborate with artists such as Lil Uzi Vert and Future, work on a film with director Harmony Korine, and record a comeback album, Utopia.

Originally teased before Astroworld, Utopia has grown to be appreciated within the hip-hop community, earning a Grammy nomination in the process.

Now, Scott has once again climbed back to the top of the mountain, selling out the Kaseya Center not once but twice, with Sunday's show being the second time he's brought his Circus Maximus Tour to South Florida.

Flocks of teens — and parents — covered every inch of space around the merch table inside the Kaseya, with kids throwing Christmas and birthday money to buy T-shirts bearing price tags that started at $55.

Walking into the arena, the crowd was already chanting, "We want Trav!" making it evident that 18,000 people were more than ready for "The Night Show."

At 9:50 p.m., Scott finally came out from the arena's locker rooms, letting everyone watch him make his way to the stage as the introductory audio repeated, "Before the show starts, open that shit up!" With that cue, kids, dressed in everything from referee uniforms to banana costumes, opened the first mosh pits of the night.
Dressed in a brown football uniform from years past but with sunglasses coming from the future, Scott made a thunderous entrance as he came out of the tunnel to the sounds of his opening track, "Hyaena." That kicked off a two-hour lights-and-pyro fest that captivated the crowd.

Early in the proceedings, the rapper called for the audience to go wild and bring the "real GTA simulation" to Miami — a reference to the Rockstar video game series. The excitement ratcheted up with classics such as "SDP Interlude" and "3500," not to mention Scott's invitation to several fans to board the "parasail," a floating rock that went from one side of the stage to the other as he performed.

Scott's first interaction with crowd control came right around "Backr00ms," a track originally released by Playboi Carti. "Security, back up! They just trying to have a good time," he repeated multiple times. Despite his numerous run-ins with authority throughout his career, on this night he was able to keep the situation from getting out of hand.

The evening's surprise guest, Swae Lee of Rae Sremmurd, came onstage to rap his verse on the fan-favorite "Nightcrawler" as well as "R.I.P. Screw" — the latter a song Scott hasn't performed live in the past five years. Lee's appearance wasn't all about saluting La Flame; he followed up with a performance of his multiplatinum hit "No Type," to the delight of the sold-out arena.

After Lee exited the stage, Scott brought the focus back to Utopia and other classics, ripping through "Sirens," "Upper Echelon," and the Kanye West-assisted "Praise God." With the help of the visuals, Scott seamlessly flowed between his catalogue's most energetic tracks to the more mellow ones.

By the time "Circus Maximus" played, the full capacity of his show was unleashed. As the drums reverberated through the crowd, apes reminiscent of the opening scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey or Planet of the Apes came onstage. The moment was amplified by producer Mike Dean, who was revealed to be on the synth keys when Scott yelled, "Break it down, Mike Dean!" and then descended from his artificial mountain to sing an Auto-Tuned, a cappella version of "Delresto (Echoes)."
The second half of the show was less about Scott's artistic vision and more like a love letter to his fans, always a focus of the rapper's career. He scanned the Kaseya for the next batch of "ragers" to hop onto his "parasail," inspiring virtually every teenaged male to grab their $55 T-shirt and twirl it in the air in the hope of getting Scott's attention. Eventually, Scott chose a group of boys who all decided to run amok shirtless, along with a pair of young women who took turns piggybacking.

One of the night's sincerest moments came when an arena employee came out to mop up someone's mess: Scott told him to take the rest of the night off and promised him a $5,000 bounty for his efforts.

The show continued with Chase B and Scott calling the next portion of tracks "songs that you want to drive to at night," beginning with the cult classic "Maria I'm Drunk," moving on to the new favorite "I Know" and then back to the highly requested "90210."

The last portion of the setlist was nothing short of a rager as Scott pushed the crowd through party favorites such as "Topia Twins" and "No Bystanders," causing the arena floor to shake. The most popular song off Utopia, "Fe!n," got a total of ten plays out of the Miami crowd as Scott found multiple inventive ways to reintroduce it. As soon as the song was over, the audience would scream, "One more time!" until it was restarted from the top.

Following the tenth "Fe!n," as Scott began to perform the multiplatinum "Sicko Mode," an apparent power surge briefly caused an uproar as some fans feared the rapper had gone over curfew. The technical difficulty was quickly addressed, and Scott delivered a medley of "Sicko Mode," "Antidote," and "Goosebumps" before announcing that "Telekinesis" would be his last song of the night.
It's a testament to his ability to innovate and adapt that Scott has not only been able to create an environment where young fans can safely express themselves but has also attached a soundtrack to it. An artist can't escape his past, but Scott has managed to learn from it, enabling him to overcome challenges that would cause other artists to stumble.

The Circus Maximus Tour is fun, energetic, and, most importantly, a brilliant showcase of the artist Scott has become.

Setlist:
- "Hyana"
- "Thank God"
-"Modern Jam"
- "Aye"
- "SPD Interlude"
- "3500"
- "Backr00ms"
- "Nightcrawler" (with Swae Lee)
- "R.I.P. Screw" (with Swae Lee)
- "No Type" (with Swae Lee)
- "Sirens"
- "Upper Echelon"
- "Praise God" (Kanye West cover)
- "God's Country"
- "My Eyes"
- "Butterfly Effect"
- "Highest in the Room"
- "Mamacita"
- "Circus Maximus"
- "Delresto (Echoes)"
- "Maria I'm Drunk"
- "Can't Say"
- "Mafia"
- "I Know?"
- "90210"
- "Meltdown"
- "Topia Twins"
- "No Bystanders"
- "Fe!n" (played ten times)
- "Sicko Mode"
- "Antidote"
- "Goosebumps"
- "Telekinesis"