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Travis Scott’s “WAKE UP” is one of the more popular tracks from his latest album ASTROWORLD, debuting at No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and pulling in over 21 million streams to date. As it turns out, the song was originally intended for The Weeknd, who is featured on the track.
In an interview with DJ Booth, producer Sevn Thomas said it was a leftover track from the Toronto singer’s most recent project My Dear Melancholy, that was repurposed for ASTROWORLD after it didn’t fit on the EP.
“I had sent that to The Weeknd probably the same week I sent ‘HOUSTONFORNICATION’ to Travis. He sent a text back: ‘Yo, recording to this right away.’ He was very excited about it,” Thomas explained. “What happened was, for Melancholy, they wanted some reproduction. Originally, [co-producer] Wallis [Lane] sent me a sample and I did my thing to it and chopped it up and then I got it to a tempo and a pace and did my thing to it. What happened was [co-producer] Frank [Dukes] repurposed the melodies and added a bridge to it, and that’s how it got on ASTROWORLD.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Thomas explained that he gave the “HOUSTONFORNICATION” beat to Travis over a year ago, adding, “I literally made that in an Airbnb in a living room while my friends were passed out on the floor.” He continued, “I’ve made beats on a plane before. I’ve made beats in car rides. Wherever you can cook up, you just cook up. It could go down anywhere, any time.”
Check out Genius' For The Record roundtable discussion of ASTROWORLD:
Read the full interview at DJ Booth and check out all the lyrics to Travis Scott’s “WAKE UP” on Genius now.
