Travis Thompson

Seattle rapper Travis Thompson crafts a playful sound through rhymes that blend vivid imagery with unguarded feeling. As a protégé of Macklemore, he issued independent material starting in 2015. A guest spot on Macklemore’s 2017 track “Corner Store” led to his major-label bow with the 2019 EP Runaways, which he quickly followed that same year by the album Reckless Endangerment. His third full-length, 2021’s BLVD BOY, included appearances by G-Eazy and Juicy J.

Partly raised in suburban White Center and now based in Burien, Washington, Thompson began penning rhymes during his school years yet grew serious about a music career only in his late teens. He dropped his first EP, Living for the Future, in 2015. Around the same period Macklemore and Ryan Lewis launched the youth initiative The Residency, inviting local promoters, agents, and industry figures to share career insights with low-income students. Thompson enrolled and reportedly caught Macklemore’s attention through both his lyricism and his drive; he returned the next year as a paid intern. In the interim he put out the 2016 mixtape Ambaum.

His breakthrough arrived in late 2017 when Macklemore placed him alongside Dave B on the single “Corner Store.” The trio performed the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, giving Thompson his first national television exposure. He followed that performance with the mid-2018 album YouGood?. After inking a deal with Blvd Boys/Epic, Thompson issued the Runaways EP in early 2019, paving the way for the full-length Reckless Endangerment later that year.