People have started a social media campaign to have Travis Scott canceled following the loss of lives at his Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas Friday night. Scott has been accused of negligence, which endangered the lives of hundreds of fans at the festival.
The 29-year old rapper has since released a statement saying he wasn’t aware of the severity of the situation, but fans and even festival security say this is a normal occurrence at all of his concerts.
In a post shared on Reddit, A man who claimed he once worked security at one of Scott’s concerts said the rapper once called him a “b-tch” for trying to keep the crowd under control.
“During the show some kid tried jumping over the barricade to get to the stage. I was the biggest guard on staff, so it was my job to restrain him and push him back into the crowd,” he recalled. “That was my job, that was what I was being paid to do.”
The security guard continued saying Scott called him and the rest of his security “b-tch ass n-ggas” for doing their jobs. According to the post Scott added “security can’t stop you all,” and encouraged his fans to rush the barricade and rush the stage.
A concertgoer, Kyle Green, 27, who is now confined to a wheelchair after breaking his vertebrae at one of Scott’s concerts in 2017 said, per Rolling Stone that the tragedies could have been avoided had Travis learnt his lesson in the past, and “changed his attitude about inciting people to behave in such a reckless manner.”
The concert Green is referring to is the same show where Scott was caught on video encouraging a different fan to drop down from the second-floor balcony into the crowd.
“I see you, but are you gonna do it?” the rapper exhorted the fan who already had climbed over the railing. “They gonna catch you. Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared!”
Travis, born Jacques Berman Wesbster II kept performing for over 30 minutes while fans at his festival were fighting for their lives. Some of the people to lose their lives at the fest include John Hilgert, a 14-year-old freshman at Memorial High School in Houston; Brianna Rodriguez, a 16-year-old junior at Heights High School in Houston; Franco Patino, a 21-year-old student at the University of Dayton from Naperville, Illinois; 23-year-old Rudy Pena; and Danish Baig, 27.
Travis in a statement said he’s working with the Houston authorities to assist the victims “through this tough time,” however fans still think he should be punished for enabling violence culture at his concerts.