The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2023 - Issue 33

bitemusicceleb Music’s Very Good Beats, which included him in the la- bel’s compilation Cruel Summer . The year after, he signed a record deal with T.I.’s Grand Hustle imprint and de- buted his mixtape Owl Pharaoh , followed by the second mixtape, Days Before Rodeo , in August 2014. The single ‘Antidote’ from his debut album Rodeo became a big hit and reached the top 20 of the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The second album, Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight, cat- apulted his music and became the first #1 album on the Billboard 200. Scott followed this with a collaborative al- bum Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho , under the group Huncho Jack. He founded Cactus Jack Records in 2017, a record label distributed by Epic Records. “I want first and fore- most to help other artists, launch new names, to provide opportunities,” he said. "I want to do what happened to me for them, but better.” In 2018, his third studio album Astroworld produced his first Billboard Hot 100 #1 single ‘Sicko Mode’ featuring Drake, which he also performed at the 2019 Super Bowl Halftime Show. He became the first artist on the Hot 100 to have three songs debut at #1 in less than a year. The album evolved into the Astroworld Festival, an annual concert held across the street from the former site of Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston. The 2018 line-up included Post Malone, Lil Wayne, Young Thug, Trippie Redd and Virgil Abloh. Scott’s style has influenced the youth culture, mixing high fashion with streetwear brands thanks to sneaker partnerships with Nike Air Force 1, Nike Air Jordan and Helmut Lang selling out within seconds. He collaborat- ed with A Bathing Ape (BAPE) in 2015, marking his first project with the streetwear brand. The collection consist- ed of a shark hoodie, a long sleeve tee and a t-shirt, with the added touch of ‘La Flame’ on the ape logo head to give it his signature appeal. The following year, he launched a clothing collection he designed with Californian streetwear brand Diamond Supply Co. The collaboration featured graphic tees, long sleeve tees, hoodies, coach jackets and dad hats. The Hou- ston Rockets commissioned the rapper for Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals vs San Antonio in May 2016, where fans in attendance at Toyota Centre received a t-shirt personally signed by the artist, featuring the Rockets playoff slogan ‘Run as One’ in his handwriting. He became the face of Saint Laurent for their spring-sum- mer 2019 collection. The luxury fashion house produced the music video for Scott’s track ‘Can’t Say’, with creative director Anthony Vaccarello providing the wardrobe. In 2020, the rapper partnered with Evisu, a Japanese denim brand founded by Hidehiko Yamane in 1991, followed by a Dior menswear collection showcased on a live stream, featuring snippets of songs from his fourth studio album Utopia including ‘Westside Gunn’ and instrumentals. To commemorate fashion designer and entrepreneur Virgil Abloh’s Mirror Mirror legacy and his passing in November 2021, Scott and grime MC Septa headlined