Yosemite
by Travis Scott (featuring Gunna & Nav)

Album: Astroworld (2018)
Charted: 25
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Songfacts®:

  • This song's title is derived from Yosemite National Park in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. However the location isn't included in the lyrics and its likely it was a placeholder title that never got changed.
  • The track features rhymes from Gunna, a rapper from College Park, Georgia. He boasts about his jewelry collection and the racks he's accumulated as well as giving props to his favorite brands including Yves Saint-Laurent and Chanel.
  • Canadian hip-hop recording artist Nav jumps in the outro. Travis Scott and Nav collaborated previously on the Houston MC's Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight track "Beibs In The Trap" and on "Champion" off NAV's album Reckless.
  • The guitar-laden beat is courtesy of local Houston producer June James, whose resumé also includes producing YFN Lucci's hit songs "Key To The Streets" and "Everyday We Lit."

    James started the beat in Atlanta. He told Billboard that he "wanted acoustic vibes." The producer added "I had actually just finished a session with Rich Homie Quan that night, and I really made five beats around that same tempo. My guitar pulled up and we just caught a vibe."

    After doing half the beat in Atlanta, he then brought his soundscape to Houston and completed it there.

    James had just been introduced to Scott for the first time in Houston and he sent him five beats. Of those, the Houston rapper picked this instrumentation for his "Yosemite" record. "It was really quick and at the end of him recording the album," he said.
  • Much of Astroworld's production was done in Hawaii. Subsequently, Travis "La Flame" Scott had his guest artists travel to the island to record their contributions. Nav references this on the outro when he raps:

    La Flame on a island, me and Cash, Gunna hopped on a Learjet

    Sickamore, Scott's longtime A&R told Rolling Stone: "We were thinking about different places to go, and we decided a lot of great albums we like are finished in Hawaii."
  • When the song was originally released, Nav had an unusually low and quiet voice during his verse. His strange-sounding vocals went viral, resulting in memes regarding the rapper. The track was later remastered.

    Asked what happened by Billboard, Nav replied:

    "Travis is such a perfectionist, where he hands in his albums really late. Maybe the mastering guy was in such a rush that he didn't listen all the way to the end, or thought that's what they meant to do. Everything was under pressure. Not only was my voice low, I heard from people around him that there were a couple more things wrong with background vocals. That was just the only thing everyone noticed.

    It was all cool. It still is a little bit awkward. I'll have a little smile on my face when it comes on in the club and it's funny. I was probably mad for the first day, then I realized it was all good."

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