Travis Scott Stresses His Musical Duality During ‘I Am Hip Hop’ Award Acceptance Speech: Watch

Travis Scott was named the recipient of “I Am Hip Hop” award at the 2024 BET Hip Hop Awards.

“I was always in love with making music,” Scott narrated in the video montage before his acceptance speech. “I just always wanted to tailor my own sound and I always wanted to, like, push the sound. Take it somewhere. It all starts within me creating. I kinda just spit it all out. I try to put a lot of energy into making the music fully come to life.”

Presented by Teyana Taylor and Tyla, the ASTROWORLD rapper first thanked God, his grandmothers and two children, Stormi and Aire. He then shared, “I come from this generation where they considered us nowhere near Hip-Hop. Every day, I try to push the sound. Coming in as a producer, nobody knew what I was trying to do, but I always had this idea and I had this vision still to this day to take this sound and take things to the next level. I’m just so glad that we made it this far.”

The 33-year-old continued, “I come from Houston, Texas and we don’t have a lot of billboards and we don’t have a lot of big advertisements to try to get us on our way. Just want to let everybody know where you come from, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just what goes on in your brain can take you to the next level and beyond. With true focus, true drive, and real surroundings, you can go wherever the f**k you want to go.”

Scott concluded by thanking BET for the recognition. “I be feeling like sometimes people don’t give a f**k about me, so this is actually dope,” he expressed.

In his video tribute, DJ Khaled was one of the people who reflected on Scott’s greatness— not just a rapper, but also as a producer. “As [the latter], he was showing his art through his music and his art was so advanced. Sometimes, [he] would cut vocals and then have that Travis Scott sound and then he’d cut another set of vocals where it’s just a whole other sound that has a certain haul on it and he found a way to make it connect.”

Taylor praised him when stating, “He did a little bit of everything. So like producing, rapping, writing, whatever it is he was doing, he was always locked in. He makes all those kids feel like it’s okay to be different.”

Bun B added, “In so short of a time, Travis has been able to not only be a part of Hip-Hop, but to actually help revolutionize Hip-Hop. Take [rap] to other levels that it hasn’t been taken to.”

For Scott though, this is only the beginning. Check out his tribute and full speech above.