On November 5, 2021, Travis Scott hosted his third annual Astroworld Festival in his hometown of Houston, and what was supposed to be an evening of enjoying live music and carnival games quickly turned into a mass casualty event that left 10 people dead and hundreds injured. Just over a month after the tragic incident, the Cactus Jack rapper has taken time to address the situation in his first exclusive interview back with Charlamagne Tha God. In this candid conversation, Scott and the radio show host delve into what Scott saw from his vantage point on stage that evening, how he’s been offering support to the families during this time, concert procedures and etiquette moving forward and more.
“I’ve been on an emotional roller coaster. It gets so hard because I’ve always felt connected with my fans and I went through something, fans went through something, it hurts the community, hurts a city, and it’s been a lot of thoughts, a lot of feelings and a lot of grieving”, the artist mentions in the opening minute of the interview. He also states that he had trouble on-stage discerning the commotion that was going on in the crowd that night. “And this night was just like a regular show, it felt like to me, as far as the energy,” he said. “People didn’t show up there just to be harmful. People just showed up to have a good time and something unfortunate happened and we just need to figure out what that was.”
Later in the near-hour long discussion, Charlamagne asks Scott about his desires of performing in the future. “I’ve always seen performance as an art of healing and I feel like it’s a moment where people have a mutual understanding”, he says. “First things first before anything is that we address a lot of safety concerns, not even just for me but because I don’t want other artists to have to go and take a part of that trauma, that experience, that fear.”
Other topics that the two touch on include that of the concept of raging at concerts, the community labeling him as a Satanic artist, how concert venues incorporate more health-related tech into their wristbands and how Scott plans to continue being there for the community.
Peep the full interview here above.
In other news, Kanye West and Drake’s Larry Hoover Benefit Concert will stream for free on Amazon.
