Jackboys & Travis Scott ‘Jackboys 2’ Review: Vibes in a Vacuum

The second collaborative compilation album from Travis Scott and his Cactus Jack signees, Jackboys 2, has little interest in establishing any coherent identity for the label or the artists involved. And, perhaps most damningly, there’s no camaraderie to speak of on the majority of this set.

JackBoys 2 feels less like the work of a collective of like-minded musicians and more like a branding exercise starring Scott as the reluctant ringmaster of a circus low on thrills. There’s no real game plan beyond putting on a show for its own sake—and, of course, boosting image visibility. Like the first JackBoys, this might as well be credited to Travis Scott & Co., with eight of the album’s 17 songs featuring either Scott solo or alongside whichever A-lister he can conjure up at the drop of a hat.

Nearly half the tracklist is devoted to Scott doing his usual thing, except a bit flatter and less inspired. He seems to recognize the minor nature of a project like this, and operates with as minimal effort as expected on snoozers such as “Dumbo.” His raps here rarely transcend verbal gibberish. On “2000 Excursion,” for example, he drones through a string of vapid flexes: “I got a bunch, you ain’t doin’ brunch/I got a front that ain’t gotta front/I put a blunt in a blunt.”

The strangest moment in this regard is “Shyne,” where GloRilla and Scott spiral into full-on baby talk, their Auto-Tuned wails curdling into a sound reminiscent of T-Pain. It’s utterly ridiculous but humorously daffy and by far the most striking moment on the entire album.

YoungBoy Never Broke Again shows up on “Outside” sounding like he recorded his verse mid-Instagram scroll, a far cry from the guy who torched on the Kanye collab “Alive” with manic, venom-laced fire mere months ago. Elsewhere, new kid on the block SoFaygo and in-house regular Don Toliver each get a solo spotlight with “MM3” and “No Comments,” respectively, but the tracks are bland and a bit plastic. (SoFaygo fares better on “Contest,” a rageful hyperpop detour that he and Scott adapt to more convincingly than anything else on JackBoys 2.)

The album’s only real jolts of energy come from Sheck Wes, who’s been mostly M.I.A. since his 2018 debut, Mudboy, and trap’s fallen prince, Waka Flocka Flame, who delivers some back-from-the-dead barking ad-libs on “Champain & Vacay.” On “ILMB,” Wes’s throat-scraped delivery feels borderline spectral, like a phantom rattling the walls of a party that’s long since ended, while Waka’s presence mostly serves as a reminder of how much more alive his own Flockaveli felt way back in 2010. That album was filled with pumping blood and booming bass, while JackBoys 2 is little more than some vibes in a vacuum.