There are a few songs on Travis Scott's "Astroworld" that remain in our playlists to this day. Actually, who are we kidding? The entire album is still in heavy rotation. The project was hyped up for so long that when it actually dropped, it felt surreal. One of the most buzzworthy songs on the album is "YOSEMITE," which became a meme after Nav's feature was mixed a little too low initially. That didn't stop the fact that the beat was one of the smoothest things we had heard in the entire year.
Much like Lil Baby and Gunna's "Sold Out Dates," "YOSEMITE" uses a guitar loop that just sounds so soothing. Guitarist Sheldon Ferguson laced the beat with plenty of his flavor, coming through strong like he always does when he works with June James. June stopped by our offices to break down the entire beat, explaining how he came up with the flare we're all familiar with now.
The producer is genuinely enthusiastic while he speaks about making the instrumental. He notes that he wanted to craft something more on the melodic side, experimenting with acoustic guitar after being so impressed with "Sold Out Dates." June James humbly admits that he doesn't go out much in Houston because he's basically "a legend" at this point. However, his friend was DJing for Travis Scott one night and he forced himself to head to the club even though he burned a hole in his Gucci shirt. Once he got there, he ended up meeting Travis, getting his personal e-mail address, and from that point on, it was history. "YOSEMITE" was sent to La Flame and it made it onto the album as one of the highlights.
Check out the story in the video above and go Behind The Beat with June James.