Hours before Travis Scott hit the MetLife Stadium stage in New Jersey, a bus full of elementary school kids are chanting along to his “FE!N” anthem driving up Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
La Flame asserted stadium status when performing in front of over 60,000 ragers for his second U.S. stadium show — California’s SoFi Stadium was the first last November — on a pleasant Wednesday night (Oct. 9) in East Rutherford.
It’s a fitting end to Scott’s lucrative Utopia era, as he revealed hi MetLife show would be the final concert in the U.S. surrounding Trav’s fourth LP, which was the best-selling rap album of 2023 and topped the Billboard 200 with 496,000 units sold in the first week.
The 33-year-old Houston native made history as the first rapper to headline MetLife Stadium. Scott continues to shatter expectations and set the standard for the next generation of rhymers to follow, while redefining what’s possible from not only a musical standpoint, but a business and product-branding perspective as well.
A child of the Kanye West school of showmanship, a Travis Scott concert is always a unique experience with his world-building ideology.
Thousands of Gen-Z fans waited hours for merchandise specialized to commemorate the MetLife Stadium show while others on the floor took a ride on the slingshot he imported from a local carnival. Even as an artist who’s been established in the game for well over a decade, Scott maintains the pulse of the world’s youth — a must for artists looking to stay on top for an extended period.
Cactus Jack admitted he had been dreaming of this moment as many doubted his ability to sell-out stadiums on both coasts. “I dreamed about this actual moment right here for a very long time,” Scott told the crowd. “I want to see this tonight. I want to see the rage tonight.”
La Flame delivered on another memorable night, with a raucous 90-minute set filled with anthems spanning his discography, help from a few rap friends and more fireworks than the New York Jets and Giants will set off all season. Here are the best six moments from the show.
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Scott Proves He’s Stadium Status
Telling any rap fan in 2015 that Travis would be performing in sold-out stadiums across the globe in less than a decade, they would’ve casted their doubts. Scott had a moment of humility when thanking his fans for riding with him as he looked to deliver on his MetLife Stadium show after it fell through due to timing and weather conditions in 2023.
“I told myself that I wanted to do this last year, but they said it was cold and s–t. I didn’t give a f–k, but whatever,” he said. “I told myself I wasn’t gonna give up on the opportunity to come back and be able to do MetLife Stadium, and a lot of people thought I was crazy. But one thing I do know, I got the realest motherf–king fans of all-time.”
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They’re FE!Nin’ for More
It wasn’t quite the 10 times he performed “FE!N” in NYC or Milan, but Scott rattled MetLife Stadium with seven renditions of the Utopia banger, which woke up Bergen County. His last of the first five “FE!N” performances included an appearance from King Vamp himself, Playboi Carti, to nearly break the decibel reader before going back to the track at the show’s close.
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“There’s No VIP at Travis Scott Shows”
One of the more unexpected moments of the night came with Travis scolded those sitting on a VIP riser. It’s unclear if they weren’t raging to his liking, but La Flame called them out to absolutely put this crew on blast: “I f–king hate VIP. There’s no VIP at Travis Scott shows,” he loudly stated in disgust.
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King Vamp Makes Rare Gotham Appearance
Playboi Carti doesn’t answer to many people as rap’s reclusive superstar, but seemingly when either Travis Scott or Kanye West call, he continues to come through.
It was rumored King Vamp and Future would make cameos, and the internet detectives were right on that front. There were plenty of “We want Carti” chants before the show even began as New York has become his second home of sorts.
Carti rose from the smoke during the fifth performance of “FE!N” to send the berserk ragers into another eruption. Matching his gothic persona, the Atlanta native rocked a black tanktop and matching leather pants to go with his fitted cap and towel underneath, like it was the early 2000s.
Playboi Carti’s fanbase is a branch from the same family tree as La Flame’s, so an Opium x Cactus Jack collab is always going to make sense. It’s only a matter of time to when Carti cements himself firmly on rap’s A-list with his anticipated Whole Lotta Red follow-up.
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Dedicates “Apple Pie” to His Parents in Attendance
Scott saved a special dessert treat for the day-one fans when performing “Apple Pie” for the first time since 2016. He dedicated the performance of the 2015 Rodeo deep cut to his parents, who were both in attendance, and thanked them for their support of his dream and putting up with his antics growing up.
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Future Pops Out for “Type S–t” to Form a New Big 3 With Travis & Carti
After Scott popped up for a few dates on Future and Metro Boomin’s We Trust You Tour, Pluto returns the favor stepping out to MetLife Stadium as a special guest on Wednesday night (Oct. 9).
With Carti also on stage, the trio electrified the crowd more than any Jets or Giants game on the same field by performing their “Type S–t” collaboration. The supercilious track originally landed on We Don’t Trust You earlier this year and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Trav, Future and Carti formed a rap superteam on stage and represented a peek into the A-listers of who’s moving the needle in the genre moving into the mid-2020s — even with all three taking very different approaches to their artistic output.
