About JACKBOYS 2, just skip to Sahbabii collab “Beep Beep”

Travis Scott asks Sahbabii to turn back the clock.

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Despite the significant success of 2023’s UTOPIA, lately, it seems as though Travis Scott is nostalgic for past glory. There was the 10th anniversary rerelease of Days Before Rodeo, and now a retreat to the critically derided JACKBOYS label.

A lot has changed since 2019 — back then, riding the high of ASTROWORLD and as yet unblemished by Astroworld, Scott was attempting to turn Luxury Tax 50 into a star in less than 22 minutes by sheer force of will. These days, his ambitions with JACKBOYS 2 are more modest — the album’s really just a pretext for $55 merch bundles — and he’s putting in the requisite boss calls: Don Toliver, who’s become an enormous star in his own right, but also Future, Playboi Carti, Kodak Black, and Youngboy Never Broke Again, which help to sell the idea that Sheck Wes is uncanceled and Sofaygo is still up next. The songs are just broadly gesturing at other songs you already know and like, but they’re competent enough.

If you’ve heard a Travis Scott album before, you know roughly what to expect here, so save yourself the trouble and skip ahead to Sahbabii collab “BEEP BEEP.” It’s a sparse, twinkling beat, ripples of plucked strings over a pool of bass, and it’s in these cool, damp environments, sheltered from the glare of the sun, that Travis’s spectral persona looks the best, cloaked and ensconced. But he’s really just there to hold space for Sahbabii, who’s been enjoying a wonderful year from the release of 2024’s Saheem to a recent tour with Gen Z icon Che. Sah keeps things tight, watching the bag “gyrate,” telling his side piece to ignore his ringing phone, describing his chain by saying he, “bought a gay parade.” He thoroughly rinses Travis, but that’s the point. Just make sure when you hit purchase on that $55 t-shirt, you tell ‘em Cactus Jack sent you.