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If you’ve been paying attention to the world of music in the past year, chances are you’ve heard of Travis Scott. The Houston-based rapper has hit the mainstream of global music with his recent album, AstroWorld, topping the charts of Billboard for weeks at a time. The eagerly anticipated album came after a 3-year hiatus where even a feature was hard to come by. The album boomed, hitting platinum a little over a month later. Even with his incredible commercial success, what sets Travis apart from the rap artists today is his concerts. His energy and atmosphere is incredible by any standard, and his setup surrounding each of his shows is unique. Judging off his musical performance and the stage extras he brings, Travis Scott is one of the best live rap concerts money can buy.

Starting with Travis’s performance itself, you’d be hard pressed to find someone with more passion on stage. When I saw him live in concert, he jumped out from a trap door and immediately began jumping and sprinting around stage on beat to the music. I was honestly impressed he could even rap along doing that much exercise. His music translates well to convert venues with booming bass being at the forefront of what he wants in much of his music, so you can really feel every song. His stage presence –or should I say offstage presence– Is one of the best I’ve ever seen from any artist, regardless of genre. He always makes sure to make each concert crazy in different ways, whether that be by organizing mosh pits, crowd surfing, throwing articles of clothing in the crowd, or bringing fans on stage to ride his rollercoaster set. No matter his antics, he always finds a way to keep the crowd interested in him as the main event.

On the atmosphere, his stage setup and extras give his concerts the extra bit of panache that makes a performance special. His stage setups are always themed to his album, and the one for AstroWorld was no different. With the theme park imagery of rollercoasters and a gargantuan astronaut inflatable blow-up, Travis wanted people to feel what it was like to be visiting the real AstroWorld down in Houston all those years ago. His LED portal centered behind the stage gave snippets of the real AstroWorld along with warped graphics and song specific imagery that made the concert personal and unique. This being said, what I feel was the best way to personalize the concert for each city was the features he brought out for some of the cities on tour. For each of his concerts he would have his star-studded openers of some combination of Gunna, Trippie Redd, and/or Sheck Wes, but for some of the larger cities he would personally invite out artists to come perform with him who are linked to that city. For example, with Atlanta he brought out 2 Chainz, Future, Young Thug, and Rick Ross all to perform. Being headliners in their own right, he makes an incredible concert experience even better by bringing in the best talent rap has to offer.

For those who are fans of rap, there are few experiences better than what Travis Scott gave on his AstroWorld tour. For those who aren’t fans of Rap, Travis will nonetheless give you a concert for the senses as you feel the vibrating bass and heat of the pyrotechnics throughout the concert. For any fan of music, Travis Scott is a must see experience.

Urban Meyer is the Most Underrated Coach of the 21^st Century

Encomium for Football Fans

When the topic of the greatest collegiate coaches of all time comes up you have your usual suspects on the list; Bear Bryant, Nick Saban, Woody Hayes, Tom Osborne, Knute Rockne, etc. You never hear Urban Meyer’s name mentioned in that list, which I find disgraceful personally. As a student at The Ohio State University and a fanatic of football, I want to speak my peace on this matter.

By the numbers, there is absolutely no denying Urban Meyer’s legacy. His 187-32 record in all competitions ranks 7^th all time among all coaches who have coached for 10+ seasons and 3^rd among those in a Power 5 Conference. The 2 above him, Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy, coached Notre Dame teams who severely outmatched their opponents when football was in its infancy and combined have less games coached than Meyer. Meyer coached against the greatest athletes and coaches the world had to offer, fighting tooth and nail for athletes to commit as opposed to the Notre Dame coaches. However, Meyer is not only respected because of his outstanding results on the field, but also because of where he is from and what he has done for the game of football. Winning coaches bring winning teams, and winning teams bring lasting memories, but how often do they result in a championship? With Urban, you have 3 of them. A master strategist, Meyer explained recently while broadcasting on Fox Sports how he created and perfected the RPO offense, the Run-Pass Option. This innovative approach allowed his historic offenses to stretch the field and wreak havoc upon his opponents no matter who the personnel were.

While previous coaches were always very successful, Urban was special in that he made Ohio State the flagship university to make it to the NFL. One might argue Alabama, or more recently Clemson, would be that team but I’ll explain why that is not the case. Alabama and Clemson have no doubt been outstanding programs, but in terms of developing talent they haven’t done nearly as much as Urban has with Ohio State. Some of Ohio State’s most famous products, Ezekiel Elliot and Michael Thomas, were not 5-star recruits. Zeke was a 4-star coming out of a small high school in Missouri and Michael Thomas was even lower at 3-stars coming out of California. Urban developed them using his revolutionary system making them standouts at the collegiate level, and now years later they are now the highest paid players at their respective positions in NFL history. It’s not hard to see why native Ohioans and Buckeyes alike are so proud to call Urban one of their own, myself included.

 I think a good person to compare Urban to in the footballing world would be Augustus Caesar. Now I’m sure many reading this are asking why I wouldn’t choose Woody Hayes to be compared to Caesar, and to that I feel I need some explanation. Hayes was a pioneer of football, incredibly successful as a coach, and well loved by those who knew him. On the other hand, Hayes was not a revolutionary tactician and his tactics almost certainly would not have succeeded in Meyer’s day and age. Rome was great before Caeser (like Ohio State was with Hayes, Tressel, etc.) and continued to be great after (as will Ohio State with Ryan Day), but the heights achieved while Caesar was at the helm were never to be surpassed.