Travis Scott took the stage at the 2019 Grammy Awards to perform a couple of songs off his Grammy-nominated album Astroworld during the 61st annual ceremony in Los Angeles. He performed “Stop Trying to Be God” with one of the collaborators on the song, Philip Bailey, and its cowriter, James Blake, before transitioning to a rendition of the LP’s “No Bystanders.”
James Blake and the Earth, Wind and Fire horns helped out Scott, with extra vocals by Philip Bailey, for a somber rendition of “Stop Trying to Be God.” Scott simply sat down and meditated on the song’s somber mood. And then things changed for “No Bystanders.” Scott jumped in a cage and a legion of kids stormed the stage to jump, with some of them climbing the state around Scott as he started rapping “No Bystanders.” It looked like something akin to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome or a Nine Inch Nails video. As smoke enveloped everyone, he climbed over and crowdsurfed, saying, “Let’s go. Let’s go.” He finished out the song rapping right into a camera as the cadre of fans bounced with him to a chorus of “Fuck the club up.”
Scott’s performance on Music’s Biggest Night comes just a week after he performed in front of a stadium full of football fans — and nearly 100 million viewers at home — during the Super Bowl LIII halftime concert.
At Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the rapper descended onto to the stage via meteor for his one-song appearance, with the rapper delivering a modestly censored rendition of his “Sicko Mode” amid the Maroon 5-headlined show.
Scott was up for three awards at the 2019 Grammys: Best Rap Album for Astroworld and Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance for “Sicko Mode.” He lost the latter two awards prior to the broadcast. While the rapper was previously Grammy-nominated for both featured appearances (SZA’s “Love Galore”) and songwriting (Kanye West’s “New Slaves”), this year’s ceremony marks the first time Scott has been recognized for his own music.
“A real driver on [Astroworld] too was when we got snubbed for the Grammys in 2016,” Scott’s A&R told Rolling Stone in 2018. “We were like, man, are they not respecting us? That’s when it was like, ‘No, y’all got it fucked up.’ We went back and wanted to make an album that was undeniable.” However, Astroworld was snubbed when it came to Album of the Year.
Thank u record academy it’s took a whole 24hrs for it to really hit me. Plus this has Also been my duffle all year. pic.twitter.com/PKvc5HhLw1
— TRAVIS SCOTT (@trvisXX) December 8, 2018