NEWSTravis Scott Breaks Silence On Fatal Astroworld Festival, Rapper Avoids Taking Blame For Devastating Tragedy
Dec. 9 2021, Published 10:58 a.m. ET
Travis Scott is addressing the Astroworld tragedy for the first time in weeks.
The 30-year-old rapper sat down with Charlamagne tha God for his first interview since 10 people died as a result of a deadly crowd surge that took place while he was performing on stage in Houston, Tex.
"I've just been trying to figure things out," he said in the beginning of the conversation, insisting that he has been keeping himself in a room to process the tragedy that occurred back in November.
Scott told Charlamagne he didn't find out about the severity of the situation until "minutes before the press conference." He also acknowledged that people often "pass out" at concerts, but maintained he was shocked to learn people had actually died.
"Did you hear any of those screams?" Charlamagne asked, referring to the hundreds of people in the audience who were desperately trying to get help for the injured concertgoers around them.
"Nah, man," the "SICKO MODE" rapper responded. "I just didn't hear that. I got music, I got my in-ears, but I just didn't hear that."
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When asked about the "rage culture" Scott is known for endorsing during his concerts, he insisted it wasn't the crowd's "high energy" that caused the incident. "Us as artists, we trust the professionals to make sure that, you know, things happen and people leave, you know safely," the soon-to-be father-of-two said.
He also explained artists are normally told when to stop a show if something serious is going on, but noted he was never instructed to stop his performance.
However, he feels a responsibility to prevent this from happening again by figuring out what exactly went wrong. "Fans come to the show to have a good experience, and I have a responsibility to figure out what happened here, I have a responsibility to figure out the solution," Scott declared. "And hopefully this takes the first step into us as artists you know having that more insight of what's going on."
He also addressed the recent reports that some families of the victims had rejected his offer to pay for funeral costs. "All things are understandable and you know at the time, they're grieving, and they're trying to find understanding and you know, they want answers, and it's not about that… I'm always gonna be here to want to help them," he continued.
"I just wanted to make sure that they knew I was there for them and continue to be there for them," Kylie Jenner's baby daddy added, before concluding: "[I'm going to] fix this for the future people and you know fix the solution and fix this problem and find a solution to make sure this doesn't happen in the future and definitely be the number one voice for this."
Not only has Scott been on the receiving end of heavy backlash following the fatal November 5 concert, but he's also been hit with hundreds of lawsuits.
