Travis Scott is breaking his silence.
The rapper sat down with Charlamagne Tha God for his first interview since 10 people died and hundreds were injured at his Astroworld festival last month.
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During the 51-minute interview, which was posted on YouTube Thursday, Travis denied legal liability and said he’s been on an “emotional rollercoaster” since the Nov. 5 concert.
“It really hurts,” he said. “It hurts the community, it hurts the city [Houston]. It’s just been a lot of thoughts, a lot feelings, a lot of grieving, ad trying to wrap my head around it.”
When asked how he’s been coping, he said, “I’ve just been in a room for a while, a lot of thoughts. I’ve been doing this for such a long time and nothing like this ever happened… At the end of the day, these fans are your family, so you just feel like you lost something.”
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Charlamagne asked about the footage of him going golfing with Michael Jordan and Mark Wahlberg in Palm Springs in the wake of the tragedy. Travis says he was spending “personal time” during Thanksgiving and a fan came and asked for a photo, which was posted on social media.
A somber Travis denied knowing that festivalgoers had been hurt until after he had come off stage. “I didn’t know the exact details until minutes before the press conference,” he said, adding that he was unaware of the severity of the situation.
“People pass out, things happen at concerts, but something like that…” he said before trailing off.
He also claimed that he didn’t hear any of the cries for help from the stage, but what he did see he acted upon.
“Anytime I could see anything like that, I did,” he said. “I stopped it like a couple times to just make sure everybody was OK.”
Charlamagne brought up the “raging” culture at his shows, which some have blamed for resulting in the deaths and injuries. Travis explained that raging is about “letting go and having fun, help others, love each other.”
“It’s not about harm,” he said. “The show isn’t just rambunctious.”
He admits that the “energy is high” at his concerts, but he always wants to make sure that his fans have the best experience. While he feels responsibility to find out what went wrong, he stopped short of placing blame on himself or others, including concert promoters Live Nation and ScoreMore.
“I have a responsibility to figure out what happened here. I have a responsibility to figure out the solution,” he said. “At the end of the day, collectively, everyone just needs to figure out the bottom line solution.”
He claims that his “in-ear” told him to end the show “after the guest,” Drake, came off stage. “Other than that, there was no other communication,” he said.
He is committed to finding a solution so that tragedies like this never occur again and feels he did everything he possibly could given the circumstances.
He also addressed the grieving families. “I’ll say to them, I’m always here. I’m in this with you guys and I love you, and I’ll always be there to help you guys heal through this,” said Travis. “It’s not just a right now thing, it’s a forever thing. These people that came to the show, they are my family. I’ll always have that connection to the people that listen to the music or came to my shows.”
At one point, he grew emotional while discussing the lives lost. “They lost their loved ones, so it’s tough. I just want to always be there for them.”
Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed since the Astroworld tragedy, which may be combined into one giant case. Attorneys for both victims and festival organizers filed a joint petition last week seeking to consolidate the nearly 300 cases into a multi-district litigation before a single judge.
