Astroworld Controversy
December 20, 2021
November 5, in Houston, Texas, idolized rapper Travis Scott held a “deadly” music festival leaving 10 people dead. One of the deaths included the passing of a 9-year old boy, trampled after falling off of his father’s shoulders. Since the show, controversies and conspiracies have risen, claiming that the festival was proposed to be a satanic ritual. Additionally, Travis has attended an interview addressing the events at Astrofest, becoming heavily criticized for Travis’ “gaslighting”.
Since the concert controversy, Travis has issued an apologetic statement addressing his emotions and concern for all families suffering loss. In return, his empathy was labeled fake, as news arose that Scott allegedly promoted fans to exceed concert capacity. With his apology, Scott offered to pay for victims’ funerals, in which some families rejected his offer. In the first interview since the tragedy, Scott claimed to have had no knowledge that any attendee had been injured or suffered death until after his performance. With contradictory evidence of Travis pointing out EMTs in the crowd and supposedly being alerted of mass casualty, the interview stirred more anger. Some viewers described the interview as being “painful”, and were unable to sit through the full 50 minutes.
As of recently, officials have asked for any evidence or footage from the Astroworld concert to upload to the FBI’s website. To help with the ongoing investigation, videos and photography from November 5th will aid with the countless hours of footage already viewed. Scott has been recognized as trying to regain his social media presence, posting pictures on a beach two months after the tragedy. Slowly, followers have recognized that he is trying to come back to his platform.
With lawsuits gained from the Astroworld tragedy, Scott was also hit with another lawsuit from mixtape cover art he allegedly stole at the start of his career. Scott had used art sent to him by French artist Mickaël Mehala, with no communication or compensation given to Mehala. The cover art has since been taken down from streaming platforms, but Mehala will still be following through with the lawsuit. There is further controversy that Scott may be performing at an upcoming music festival, Rolling Loud. In a tweet posted by Rolling Loud issuing presale
tickets, the account wrote, “This early bird presale is for the ragers that trust the process”. The inclusion of the term “ragers” began the theory that this would mark Scott’s first appearance on stage since Astroworld, as “ragers” is a term coined for defining his fans.
Travis Scott’s spiked seltzer brand, “CACTI”, has also been discontinued due to recent events. Additionally, Nike has postponed the show drop of Airmax 1 x Cactus Jack out of respect for all those suffering tragedies from Astroworld. Further, Travis has been removed from the lineup of Coachella 2022. This act accounts as a consequence of the tragedy that followed from his music festival.