“Circus Maximus” by Travis Scott (The Weeknd)
At this point, after having gone through over half the songs on “Utopia”, it’s safe to say that many of the tracks, including this one, have relatively difficult to understand supporting passages, i.e. interludes, outros, choruses or what have you.
Actually in the case of “Circus Maximum”, there is no chorus. But we are met with an intro, interlude and outro, the first of which is held down by Swae Lee, and the latter two being rendered by The Weeknd.
The Weeknd
As for Abel’s contributions, in the interlude he is addressing someone who reads like a romantic interest or somebody in his life whereas the “love” between them has become “forsaken”.
So now, he’s asking this individual whether or not they care if he’s “alive” or not. That part is pretty easy to understand, but then the vocalist follows up by further asking the addressee “or do you wanna be famous” – a query that imbues the passage with some type of a meaning or background that is not as easy to discern.
And so it is with the outro also, in which The Weeknd seems to once again be addressing someone who wants to be famous. Or theorized otherwise, the addressee is so ambitious that they’re destroying their relationship with the vocalist.
But in the meantime, the latter is “waiting in an echo”, a phrase similar to what we had to deal with in “Delresto (Echoes)“, another track from “Utopia” which isn’t that easy to comprehensively understand.
And he concludes by stating “sorry I didn’t let you out”, a phrase that can even be interpreted along the lines of alluding to this interaction perhaps being a soliloquy. But it seems as if for the most part, in an attempt to make sense out of it all listeners have taken it as The Weeknd is addressing his ex, even though the rest of the song isn’t romantic in nature.
Swae Lee and Travis
As for the intro, after celebrating that “God done gave (him) strength”, we find Swae Lee mentioning “the front row seats you wanted”. This would be more in tune with the title and presumably intended motif of the track, which is to revolve around the Circus Maximus. Said structure actually dates back to the BC era being, most simply put, the name of a famous Roman coliseum.
In the first verse Travis seems to be describing, at least to some limited extent, his own personal Circus Maximus, with said venue perhaps serving as a metaphor for what’s going on with him internally.
Meanwhile the second verse is a bit more along the lines of standard braggadocio, though not entirely in terms of the vocalist biggin’ up himself. Yes, Scott does proceed to compare himself to the likes of Moses and Socrates. But nearer to the end of the verse, he seems to be inviting the vocalist into his world though again, what’s being put forth isn’t done so in a clear and concise manner.
So as can be gleaned, there’s a lot going on in this song. And in conclusion, it should be noted that there’s an entire, 75-minutes long film titled Circus Maximus which Scott put out in conjunction with “Utopia” – a movie that has been advertised as being “a surreal and psychedelic journey”, amongst other such, may we say esoteric descriptions.
That’s basically a fancy way of saying that the film is probably challenging to understand, as with this, its title track, if you will. But perhaps upon watching the movie, the song would also start to make more sense.
“A walk-in attraction
A walking distraction
I’m naturally black and
Unnaturally breathing
Like a waist that is snatching
Welcome to my world, where it’s packed in
At the top of the tavern”
Release Date of “Circus Maximus”
On July 28th, 2023, Travis Scott dropped “Utopia,” his fourth studio album. The record features “Circus Maximus” as one of its prime tracks.
Credits
Scott, WondaGurl, The Weeknd, Swae Lee, Noah Goldstein, MIKE DEAN and Jahaan Sweet collectively wrote “Circus Maximus”. With the exception of Lee and Weeknd, all the writers are also acknowledged as official producers of this song.
