In his first sit-down interview since last month’s Astroworld concert that left 10 dead, rapper Travis Scott said he did not know anyone was injured or killed at the Texas festival until after the show.
Scott, 30, told “The Breakfast Club’s” Charlamagne Tha God about the November 5 concert in Houston — which turned into a mass casualty event when a crowd rush killed 10 concertgoers, including two children. The rapper claimed he did not hear fans screaming for help — despite several videos posted to social media showing the contrary.
Scott went on to say that the first time he heard of fatalities at the event was after the show, minutes before a press conference.
“It wasn’t really until minutes until the press conference [after the show] that I figured out what happened. Even after the show, you’re just kind of hearing things, but I didn’t know the exact details” Scott said. “And even at that moment, you’re like, ‘Wait, what?’ You just went through something,” he told Charlamagne.
The festival reportedly went on for 40 minutes after it was declared a mass casualty event. However, Scott explained that he was never told to stop the show.
“They told me, ‘Right after the guests get on stage, we’re going to end the show.’ And that’s what we did. Other than that, there was no communication,” Scott said.
Last month, an attorney representing the families of Astroworld victims Jacob Jurinek and Franco Patino filed a $750 million lawsuit against Scott, Drake, 35, who also performed at the festival, and promoter Live Nation on behalf of 125 concertgoers.
BuzzFeed News reported that in legal paperwork filed on Monday, Scott denied responsibility and asked to be dropped as a defendant in the 11 civil suits filed against him — which total approximately $3 billion in damages.
The rapper told Charlamagne that he felt as if the public was “forcing responsibility” on him for the concert that left 10 dead. In light of the incident, he said he is now concentrated on preventing something like this from happening again.
“I’m the face of the festival, I’m the artist, so the media wants to put it on me, but at the end of the day I don’t think it’s more so about that, it’s more so about stepping up to figure out what the problem is. And I could take that,” Scott commented.
“I can take stepping up to figure out what the problem is. I can take stepping into figuring out the solution [so it] never happens again, ’cause that’s what I genuinely wanna do in general.”
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[Featured image: Travis Scott/YouTube video screengrab]
