Travis Scott may be one of the biggest hip hop artists on the planet, but the tragedy that was the Astroworld Festival Crowd Rush will always be a talking point when his name is mentioned. The 2021 incident, which resulted in the death of ten people, exposed Scott to legal action and a myriad of criticism over how he handled (or refused to handle) the crowd at the show.
Scott is attempting to put the incident behind him with the promotional rollout for his new album, Utopia. The album has reached number one in several countries and will be the focus of the upcoming tour of the same name, but the rapper has announced that he will not be performing in Houston due to what happened last time.
TMZ obtained the tour dates for the UTOPIA tour, which includes 26 stops, but the exclusion of Houston immediately stood out, given that it’s Scott’s native city. There will still be shows in Austin and Dallas, Texas, but Houston has been wiped from the itinerary. This makes sense, given the legal fallout that Scott has had to navigate since 2021.
Scott and Live Nation settled a lawsuit against the family of one of the victims as recently as August 2023. Complex reported that the family decided to withdraw their lawsuit after a lengthy process, but the rapper is still facing civil suits from other attendees that amount to millions of dollars in damages. He’s also facing criticism from those who feel as though he’s used his celebrity to shield himself from punishment.
Upon learning that Scott would be exempt from any criminal charges, the family of Ezra Blount issued a statement to the Daily Mail. “For Mr. Scott to allow his lawyers and spokespeople to make the reckless and untrue statement that just because he was not indicted means he’s blame-free is arrogant and insulting to the memory of 10-year-old Ezra as well as the other victims of this terrible night,” the statement read. “Of course, they would only focus on how the report’s release date hurts their album sales instead of the facts contained inside of the report.”
Scott, who has not toured since the incident in 2021, expressed his regret over the situation during an interview with Charlamagne tha God. “It’s really hard on me. They lost their loved ones, you know, so it’s tough,” he explained. “I just want to just always be there for them and just always want them to be able to know I’m [going to] fix this for the future. I feel like people understand that my heart wasn’t there to be a villain, I was there to be a hometown hero.”
It remains to be seen whether Scott will elaborate on his feelings regarding the Astroworld incident, or whether there will be a more pointed effort towards securing the safety of his concertgoers during the UTOPIA tour, but we certainly hope that no such tragedies occur this time around. If we’re to take the rapper at his word, he has taken the necessary steps to fix what went wrong.