The rapper said his paternal grandmother, Bernice Webster, assigned him the reading for his summer reading curriculum.
ByJaelani Turner-Williams
July 22, 2026
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Long before he starred in The Odyssey, Travis Scott was punished by his grandmother for not reading the epic Homer poem.
In a new cover story in Variety, Scott admitted that when his paternal grandmother, Bernice Webster, an English professor, assigned the eighth-century BC poem as part of his childhood summer reading curriculum.
Rather than taking the assignment seriously, the UTOPIA rapper rushed through the project out of disinterest.
“That summer, she made me do an essay on the book, and I did some CliffsNotes bullshit,” Scott told the publication. “I got a whoopin’ because I lied about reading it.”
Scott plays a bard in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the epic, which premiered in theaters last Friday (July 17). The moment has been celebrated by Grandma Webster.
“She’s like, ‘See? That’s why I made you read that book; now you’re in this movie,'” Scott said. “It’s actually crazy.”
The rapper now plans to take his grandma, mom Wanda Webster, and his maternal grandma Sealie Wood to see the film, intending to “shut down” a theater for his family to come.
Casting Scott was an intentional choice made by Nolan. The filmmaker told TIME in a May article that he wanted “to nod toward the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap.”
Scott also contributed the song “When I’m Home,” co-created by James Blake and Ludwig Göransson, to the film six years after his single “The Plan” was featured on the soundtrack for Tenet, also directed by Nolan.
