Travis Scott Floods the Zone with YouTube Release of Full ‘Circus Maximus’ Movie, 4 ‘Utopia’ Music Videos
Written by djfrosty on August 16, 2023
Travis Scott‘s super-sized roll-out of his Utopia album continued on Tuesday (Aug. 15) with the free YouTube posting of his 75-minute Circus Maximus film, as well as four Utopia music videos.
The trippy film — which played in select theaters on the album’s July 28th release date — opens with a scene in which Scott dreams he is being enveloped by a gigantic sea creature before setting off on a quest across a desolate landscape that brings him to a lavish mansion where he meets up with producer Rick Rubin.
Seen through a keyhole, their interaction initially finds Rubin asking probing questions (“is the house half empty, or completely empty?,” “how are the kids?,” “are you still crying?,” “how about the drugs, are they still working, or are you just tired of them?”) as an exasperated Scott tries to gather his thoughts.
What unfolds over the next hour-plus is a head-spinning film — written by Scot and co-directed by the rapper, Andrew Dosunmu and Kahlil Joseph — that incorporates all 19 tracks from the feature-filled album in a series of colorful vignettes. It bounces from Scott rapping “Hyaena” in an African village, to the MC participating in a Catalan-style human tower build in “Sirens,” all intercut with bits of the Rubin interview.
Elsewhere, there is a futuristic taxi chase set to the Beyoncé-assisted “Delresto (Echoes),” a strobing underground dance party for “Modern Jam” and some fresh footage cued to “Hyaena” and a remix of “Jam” in which Scott stands in front of a massive wall of speakers in Rome’s Circus Maximus, which bleeds into an extended run of footage from the recent album release show in the ancient venue that drew 60,000 fans and a surprise Kanye West cameo.
The break-out videos for “Sirens,” “Modern Jam,” “Hyaena” and “Delresto (Echoes)” are all versions of the clips that appear in the Maximus movie. Utopia has ruled the Billboard 200 albums chart for two weeks in a row, earning 147,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. for the week ending Aug. 10, down 70%, according to Luminate, from its debut the week before with 496,000 units earned.
Check out the Scott videos below.