In every success story, there is more than one side to each story. One of the recent new stars in the game is Travi$ Scott, who is from Houston. This past year, Travi$ Scott has become one of the biggest names in the game, signed to both Kanye West and T.I. and co-signed by DJ Khaled.
His career has experienced plenty of highs over the past year and the people who knew Travi$ Scott before the fame definitely have something to say. It’s hard to gauge what the people have to say in situations like these. Regardless of what happens, people always attach to someone who has success.
A former friend of Travi$ Scott’s, who still considers himself a friend, decided to address the success of him. He penned an open letter to Travi$ Scott, which he calls “Dear Travi$ Scott.” In this letter, he included Facebook messages, screenshots of Travi$ Scott adding him and details of how he gained him industry connections.
Read the “Dear Travi$ Scott” letter below:
I have no hatred towards Travi$ Scott. I’m not going to crusade against his acts mainly because he still has my full support. I just want him to open his eyes and take into notice who was there for him since day one. He took what I had to offer and ran with it. They say the loudest man in the room is the weakest, and by the looks of it I’m pretty weak but there’s no other way of me making it clear to Travis that what he did to me was wrong.
Watching your idol rise to the top is phenomenal, especially when you’ve been there from nearly the start of their career. I remember clearly adding my cousin Tony Loney on Facebook, and doing what I could to bring back memories from when I used to hang with him as a little kid. I posted on his wall reminiscing on the past, and he eventually came through and remembered some times when we saw each other in NYC when he visited. After we exchanged a few messages, Tony introduced me to a duo he was working with, Travis & Jason. The group, consisting of Houston natives Travi$ Scott and OG Che$$, had been working on new music and just released their “The Mack” remix. I was intrigued by their music and decided I’d share it on my timeline, not only once, or twice, but I’d say at least 100 times. I introduced their material to multiple handfuls of my fellow seventh graders, in particular a good friend of mine, Taylor. I noticed the group lacked a Facebook page, so I thought I’d spruce one up for them, and that’s just what I did. A few weeks passed as I tried to garner them some fans, and I was fairly new to the whole FB thing. I was roaming around, searching for new pages to become a fan of, until I decided to search my other cousin’s name, who then played for the Dodgers, James Loney. I hit like on the page with the most amount of likes, and then dug even further by stalking what people had to say on the page. I probably commented the same thing on over a dozen posts, stating that “I’m cousins with James Loney!! Check the about on my profile!! I swear!,” or something along those lines. At that point I was an illiterate 12-year-old. The following day I got a friend request from a girl named Monica, who was supposedly cousins with Big Time Rushmember Carlos Pena. Turns out Carlos was a huge fan of James, and wanted to meet him with a passion. A simple tweeto James could have triggered that connect, but who really knows why he didn’t just do that in the first place. Monica eventually lead me to Carlos’ personal Facebook, in which had funky names to cover his identity. We talked for a week’s time, we exchanged numbers, and I then started to play games with his head. I said I’d help him meet his favorite baseball player, but only if he helped my cousin’s homies, Travis & Jason. Once Tonygot the news that a big name messed with their music and he passed it on to the guys, I’m sure they were really excited to see what was to follow. Both Travis and Jason added me as a friend on Facebook, and I was excited as hell because I thought some big industry names added me.
From there I texted Carlos almost everyday asking for an update on if he was showing label executives their music, and he replied with a yes and that the directors of BTR were interested in having them appear on the show. Clearly that never became a reality.
About a year later, Travis & Jason split abruptly, in a move that would leave OG Che$$ in the dust forever.
“That B!tch Crazy” released, and everything turned golden for La Flame. He got published on Earmilk, the first big blog to discover him. A relationship was then built with the guys over at illRoots. He moved to LA, became homeless for a bit, and released “Lights (Love Sick)” in January of 2012. The video reached the greats including T.I. and Kanye West, and from there his career was promised. He inked a deal with Grand Hustle and a signed as a producer with G.O.O.D. Music. Owl Pharaoh at this point was due out in March, but we never caught sight of that until over a year later.
As most people do when they receive fame and fortune, Travis Scott’s fame and fortune impacted him and I feel as if he forgot who supported him since day one. At this point I was sickened, mainly because Travis couldn’t take time to return a text or phone call to a fan who’s been there since he had 20 fans. It’s all clear to me now, I was an annoying little kid who he didn’t need in his life anymore. Not saying I’m responsible for all of his fame, but I did my best to contribute and find it quite impressive how I discovered Travis in such an early stage of his musical endeavor. I gave myself the title of being director of social media, as I would update his Facebook fan page on a regular basis as it steadily generating thousands of likes.
I broke the basic threshold of being a fan, however. I went above and beyond to spread Travis‘ music to the ears of many. I was fourteen at the time I got the most done for Scott and I was eager then to make it in the music industry, and I still am. I would contact numerous amounts of people via Facebook in regards to Travis. Complex, The Source, Diamond Supply Co, so many fucking blogs/brands that I can’t even list them all. I bet the readers of Travi$ Scott‘s interview with Complex had no idea I was behind making that happen. I must admit that of course getting that was easy as 1, 2, 3 but I took the initiative to go out and make that plug for Travis.
These are just small segments of my commitment to TS. I had a strong passion of trying to help Travis out and I never seemed to get anything in return. I wasn’t expecting money, I wasn’t expecting shout outs, but a simple thank you would’ve been nice. I look at myself in the mirror and see a kind young teenager. I try to help others out as often as I can, especially when it comes to music related stuff. I’ve grown to hate today’s society more and more, and what Travis did to me left me in a state of shock.
Tony Loney is no longer working for Travis. I’m not quite sure how everything went down, but what I do know is that Travi$ Scott is now the official owner of Tony‘s MacBook. As you all probably know, Travis resided in Hawaii for a while as him and the rest of G.O.O.D. Music worked on Cruel Summer in the summer of 2012. When it was time to return back home to Los Angeles, Travis literally forgot everything in his hotel. His luggage and his MacBook were the two biggest items. Instead of going out and purchasing a brand spanking new computer, he decided to leech off Tony and use his constantly until he proclaimed it was his. July of 2013, almost a year after losing his laptop and he was still using Tony‘s. July 20th, two days before the PNCXX tour kicked off in Houston. Tony wanted to leave their LA condominium two days early to head to Houston, where the tour started, to visit family and friends he hadn’t seen in forever. Tony went to grab his MacBook and Travis said nay nay. He snagged the computer out of Tony‘s hands and a fight almost broke out. Travis then dipped, MacBook in hands and everything. Tony then flew back to Houston and they haven’t talked since.
Being the nice guy that I am, periodically I would share a friend’s music on the page I admin’d and even throw up the TTM link when Travis would drop a new song. Travis told me to text him before I post on the page so he can give me the okay of whatever I had in mind, but when I did I would never receive a response. One awful night I received mentions and DM’s from La Flame when I posted Devin Miles‘ video for “Like Me” on the page, and even Avenue‘s extended playlist Summer Of ’91. He asked for my number so he could call me, and he did eventually. The direct messages I got surely left me jawdropped. It’s not everyday where your idol threatens to fuck you up over some silly stuff. My screen lights up stating that I have an incoming call from Travis Scott. I was hesitant to answer but I did hoping for the best. He demanded I took myself off from being administrator of the page along with Loney. I listened to his wishes and that was that. Haven’t done anything for Travis since then.
Now Travis, like I said I’m not crusading against your acts. I wish the best for you and I will always be supportive of whatever you do. I just want you to open your eyes and realize what you’ve done to people in the past is wrong.
