The Travis Scott fish is not a name for the species going by the scientific name Cheilinus undulatus. But rest assured, the fish that goes by four different names out in the wild looks to seem keen observers quite a bit like rapper Travis Scott—especially when Photoshop gets into the mix.
The Napoleon fish (or Napoleon wrasse, or Maori wrasse, or humphead wrasse), is “very important to coral reef health” according to the World Wildlife Federation, and “are born with both male and female sex organs,” according to the Dallas World Aquarium. That site notes the fish is “the largest member of the wrasse family [and] grow up to 7.5 feet and weigh up to 420 pounds.”
But for people who have seen it online, it’s probably not quite in the form you’d see it in if you encountered it “in warm waters of the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, mainly on coral reef edges and drop-offs.” It’s more likely in one of several doctored forms, with Reddit initially to blame.
How did the Travis Scott fish meme start?
In late 2019, a Redditor who has since deleted their account posted a picture of “Trafish Scott,” according to the team at Know Your Meme. Two months later, a Redditor posted a picture of a “Travis Scott Fish” to r/travisscott, and that rendering stuck, eventually migrating to Facebook and Instagram.
Prior to that, a Scott-styled fish surfaced on the Scott-dedicated subreddit—apparently from Bikini Bottom, home of Spongebob Squarepants—and more recently, someone with time and talent drew the fish and shared it there.
Those renderings included a fake post by Scott himself, “commenting” on the fish picture with “stop sending me this sh*t.”
By 2022, it had also migrated to TikTok.
@intelcope #stitch with @animalzmemes ♬ original sound – Tik Toker
What about the real Travis Scott?
While imaging Scott crossed with a Napoleon wrasse amused some, it’s also a sobering reminder that Scott’s life is divided into two acts: What happened before November 2021 and what’s happened since.
As GQ noted in a November 2023 article, titled, “The Reemergence of Travis Scott,” remarked that “since the cataclysm of November 2021, when 10 people who attended Scott’s Astroworld festival in Houston died, Travis Scott has been edging back into the world.” His July 2023 release of Utopia, plus an accompanying tour, means he’s finding his way back into the spotlight following an understandable retreat.
But what happened in Houston has definitely affected his legacy, and as Daily Dot coverage shows, he has his share of critics. One story detailed what appeared to be a flash-bang device going off at an October 2023 Scott show. Comments in a TikTok documenting the incident were along the lines of “If you don’t leave a Travis Scott concert in a stretcher did you even go to a Travis Scott concert?” and “He wants every lawsuit available.”