While Travis Scott is facing the repercussions of the deadly Astroworld tragedy,
many have begun to recall his history of encouraging rage-like behavior.
We’re taking a closer look at past instances where Travis willingly put his fans in grave danger.
Now more than ever, last weekend’s events that took place in Houston have brought on even more
awareness of the dangers that lie in promoting reckless and rage-like behavior during concerts.
As many fans know, Travis Scott’s live shows are notorious for containing high-octane
energy as he notably encourages his audience to let loose and in his words, “rage”.
In an interview published by GQ back in 2015 on “how to rage,”
Travis revealed that he wanted his shows to feel like “high-energy wrestling matches,”
as he typically encourages the crowd to match his energy level on stage in the form of jumping,
dancing and even forming dangerous mosh pits in the front section.
Travis also admitted that he wants his fans to “do them”,
and in another interview with GQ published two years later in 2017,
he was quoted saying, “Sometimes the kids are just so into it that it just comes out of them,”
and added, “I always am just surprised by the things that happen at the shows.”
With that said, some of his loyal fans were not all that surprised by the eight deaths
and hundreds of injuries that resulted from his Astroworld,
especially given Travis’ past behavior.
As we previously reported, back in 2015 while Travis performed a set at a Switzerland music
festival, a fan reportedly attempted to steal his shoe while crowd surfing,
to which Travis urged the crowd to beat him up.
He could be heard screaming in the mic, “Get that motherf***er” and “F*** him up!”
A month later during Lollapalooza, Travis encouraged his crowd to bum rush the stage
while chanting, “We want rage!” and telling his audience, “Let’s go. Come over. I want chaos!”
He only performed three songs before the cops shut his set down. Travis fled the
scene and was later taken into custody and charged with disorderly conduct.
Two years later during a 2017 show at Terminal 5 in New York City,
one fan named Kyle Green became paralyzed and is now permanently in a wheelchair after
falling from a 3-story balcony during Travis’ performance.
Upon falling, Travis essentially bribed Kyle by
offering up one of the rings he was wearing on his finger.
“Hey, pick him up! Pick his a** up and give him this ring! I gotta put this ring on him.”
After cracking multiple vertebrae when being forced over the edge due to the reckless crowd,
many others voluntarily jumped, as a since-deleted video captured Travis telling the crowd,
“Don’t be scared, they’ll catch you!”
And later that year during a show in Rogers, Arkansas, Travis had encouraged
fans to rush past security to get to the stage after yet another slew of injuries.
Travis’ 2019 Netflix documentary “Look Mom I Can Fly” even featured one fan
gushing into the camera, following the aftermath of the Arkansas performance,
leaning on crutches saying, “I survived, I survived! It’s all good!”
The aftermath of this show resulted in three misdemeanor charges on Travis for inciting a riot,
disorderly conduct and endangering the welfare of a minor, in which he pleaded
guilty to disorderly conduct and had to pay over $6,000 to two people who were injured at the show.
People can only assume that these harrowing events over the past years may have contributed to what
led to such extreme consequences, as adequate safety precautions were not taken during the
Astroworld Festival as thousands have been deeply affected by last weekend’s events.
As always, we continue to keep the families and loved ones of the victims in our thoughts,
and can only hope that much more serious measures
are taken to protect the lives of concertgoers in the future.
To see what Travis Scott’s ex-manager had to say about
the Astroworld Festival incident, click right over here for the full rundown.
Then be sure to let me know what you think of Travis’ past concert behavior
and if you think it contributed to the events that occurred at Astroworld in the comments below.
I’m your host Sussan Mourad, you can find me on my socials
@sussan_mourad, and I’ll see you guys next time.