Travis Scott Details Origin of "FE!N" With Playboi Carti, Compares Process to "Sicko Mode"

Nearly two years since it first emerged as a clear and immediate highlight off Travis Scott’s fourth album Utopia, “FE!N,” featuring Playboi Carti, remains a playlist mainstay and fan-favorite from both artists’ discographies. In a new interview with Eric Skelton for Complex’s latest cover story, Scott looks back on his earliest feelings about the track, likening the conviction he had about its eventual impact to the creation of the Drake-featuring “Sicko Mode” off Astroworld.

“The song was kind of finished,” Scott said when asked to detail the “FE!N” origin story. “I just brought it when we were in the A. I remember we did a song before that, and before I left, I was like, ‘Well, I got this one joint I want to play. I’m thinking about putting it on my album. We’ll see if you want to fuck with it.’ And when I played it, he was just going crazy.”

Scott then offered an aside about “Sicko Mode,” highlighting the fact that both songs, which each represent pivotal chapters in his artistic journey, were initially kept largely “tucked” in protection of a bigger vision.

“I really don’t even play them for my homies,” Scott explained. “Maybe a couple of homies hear it, but they don’t ever see the full vision until I’m done with it. That was just one of those ones. It was crazy. He did his verse right there. And then when I went back, I was fucking with it, making it the song it is now. It was fucking crazy.”

Speaking more generally about his and Carti’s proven chemistry in the studio, Scott, whose new Complex cover story is available in physical form here as part of an issue that also features the conclusion of a very important robot sex trilogy, cited a sense of musical freedom as instrumental in their repeated collaborative success.

“Even when we did our first songs years ago, he’s always been down to just create whatever,” Scott told Complex. “I think that’s why it always works.”

Scott makes multiple appearances on Carti’s Billboard 200-topping MUSIC, out now. See where the album ranked in Complex’s ranking of all four of Carti’s full-lengths here.