News Analysis India

Tag: Astroworld

  • Travis Scott drops ‘Utopia,’ his first album since the Astroworld festival tragedy

    By Associated Press

    NEW YORK: Rapper Travis Scott has released “Utopia,” his first album in five years and his first major release since 10 people died at his 2021 Astroworld music festival.

    The star-studded 19-track “Utopia” features Beyoncé, SZA, Drake, Sampha, Young Thug, Playboi Carti, Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Future, Bon Iver, James Blake, Kid Cudi, 21 Savage, and many more.

    The LP, Scott’s fourth full-length, was originally announced back in 2020 and follows 2018’s “Astroworld.” In November 2019, 10 people died as a result of compression asphyxia during a massive crowd surge during Scott’s Astroworld festival. A grand jury declined to file charges against Scott earlier this year.

    Also Friday, Houston police released files that showed that some workers were concerned about the crowd conditions at the show. The 1,300-page report also included a summary of an interview with Scott in which he said he did not hear calls from the crowd to stop the show.

    The first track from the album, the popetón -adjacent “K-pop”, was released on July 21 and features the Weeknd and Bad Bunny. The release spans genres — an eclectic mix of autotune ambient ballads (“My Eyes”), ferocious bars (“Looove”), futuristic trap (“Lost Forever,” Telekinesis”), and beyond.

    In addition to the album, Scott hosted a one-night-only release of his feature film, “Circus Maximus” at select theatres on Thursday night.

    “Utopia” was originally scheduled to be celebrated with a live-streamed concert at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, but was cancelled due to “complex production issues,” Live Nation said in a statement.

    NEW YORK: Rapper Travis Scott has released “Utopia,” his first album in five years and his first major release since 10 people died at his 2021 Astroworld music festival.

    The star-studded 19-track “Utopia” features Beyoncé, SZA, Drake, Sampha, Young Thug, Playboi Carti, Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Future, Bon Iver, James Blake, Kid Cudi, 21 Savage, and many more.

    The LP, Scott’s fourth full-length, was originally announced back in 2020 and follows 2018’s “Astroworld.” In November 2019, 10 people died as a result of compression asphyxia during a massive crowd surge during Scott’s Astroworld festival. A grand jury declined to file charges against Scott earlier this year.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Also Friday, Houston police released files that showed that some workers were concerned about the crowd conditions at the show. The 1,300-page report also included a summary of an interview with Scott in which he said he did not hear calls from the crowd to stop the show.

    The first track from the album, the popetón -adjacent “K-pop”, was released on July 21 and features the Weeknd and Bad Bunny. The release spans genres — an eclectic mix of autotune ambient ballads (“My Eyes”), ferocious bars (“Looove”), futuristic trap (“Lost Forever,” Telekinesis”), and beyond.

    In addition to the album, Scott hosted a one-night-only release of his feature film, “Circus Maximus” at select theatres on Thursday night.

    “Utopia” was originally scheduled to be celebrated with a live-streamed concert at the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, but was cancelled due to “complex production issues,” Live Nation said in a statement.

  • Dior indefinitely postpones Travis Scott collaboration line after Astroworld concert tragedy

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Ahead of a launch slated for January 2022, Travis Scott and Dior have indefinitely postponed their ‘Cactus Jack Dior’ line of products. The news comes after a troubling few weeks for Scott, who has been hit with dozens of lawsuits following the Astroworld tragedy that left 10 people dead.

    According to The Hollywood Reporter, of the approximately 50,000 concertgoers who attended his Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas on November 5, hundreds more were injured. The capsule collection originally began as a collaboration between Dior men’s artistic director Kim Jones and Scott, who’s Cactus Jack brand spans music, fashion, and food and beverage.

    In a statement, representatives for Dior said, “Out of respect for everyone affected by the tragic events at Astroworld, Dior has decided to postpone indefinitely the launch of products from the Cactus Jack collaboration originally intended to be included in its summer 2022 collection.”

    Since the Astroworld tragedy, Scott’s Air Max 1, a two-sneaker collaboration with Nike, has been put on hold and Anheuser-Busch, Scott’s partner on the popular Cacti hard seltzer beverage, announced that the cans would be discontinued.

    Scott has gained a reputation for being an entrepreneurial rapper, counting brands like Nike, Jordan, McDonald’s, Epic Games, and Parsons School of Design as collaborators on various projects. The now-suspended launch is not the first time Scott has worked with Dior; the musician was the face of the luxury fashion house’s AIR DIOR capsule collection for their Men’s Fall-Winter 2020 show.

    But Scott’s shelved project would have been more uniquely his own, as the Cactus Jack Dior collection was designed to pay homage to his native Texas and the Dior brand’s Parisian heritage and connection to the American South. The collection was the first time Dior partnered with a musician on a collection and the first time it ever allowed its iconic logo to be altered.

    As of December 22, The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has launched an investigation into Live Nation, the event promotion and management company responsible for organising the Astroworld festival.

    In an open letter to Michael Rapino, Live Nation’s president-CEO, Carolyn B. Maloney, the committee’s chairwoman, has demanded a hearing before the close of January 2022.

  • Astroworld tragedy: Travis Scott says he was unaware of audience deaths until after show

    By Associated Press

    HOUSTON: Rapper Travis Scott said in an interview that he didn’t know that fans had died at his Astroworld festival in Houston until after his performance.

    In a lengthy interview with TV and radio personality, Charlamagne Tha God posted on YouTube on Thursday, Scott described from his perspective what happened at the Nov. 5 festival that left 10 people dead.

    “It wasn’t really until minutes before the press conference until I figured out exactly what happened. Even after the show, you’re just kind of hearing things, but I didn’t know the exact details until minutes before the press conference,” Scott said.

    He said he paused the performance a couple of times, but he couldn’t hear fans screaming for help.

    “I stopped like a couple of times just to make sure everybody was OK,” said Scott. “I just really go off the fans energy as a collective, you know? Call and response. I just didn’t, I just didn’t hear that.”

    Scott was the headliner and creator of the Astroworld festival, where 50,000 people were in the audience. Scott’s set turned deadly as fans surged toward the stage. The youngest victim was 9-year-old Ezra Blount. The others who died ranged in age from 14 to 27. Some 300 people were injured and treated at the festival site and 25 were taken to hospitals.

    More than 300 lawsuits have been filed so far in Houston and will be consolidated and handled by one judge. Scott, concert promoter Live Nation and other companies associated with the event are among those being sued. Additionally, Scott and the event organizers are the focus of a criminal investigation by Houston police. No one has been charged, and no timetable has been set for when the investigation would be completed.

    “Travis Scott, his entourage, handlers, promoters, managers, hangers on and everyone else who enable him are the problem,” said Tony Buzbee, an attorney representing the family of 21-year-old Axel Acosta Avila who died, in a statement provided to the AP on Thursday. “Everything that Travis Scott has done or said since ten people died and hundreds of others were injured at his concert has been lawyer driven and calculated to shift blame from him to someone else.”

    In the interview, Scott denied that his history of encouraging fans to rush the stage or push past security contributed to the chaos at Astroworld.

    “People didn’t just show up there to be harmful,” said Scott. “People showed up to have a good time and something unfortunate happened.”

    Scott said he had private discussions with some of the families of the victims. He also said that he understood why some families declined his offer to pay for funeral expenses.

    “I’m always going to be here to want to help them,” Scott said of the victims’ families. “I gotta continue to show up for that. I just wanted to make sure they knew that I was there for them and continue to be there for them.”

    Scott said that he wants to know more about what caused the deaths and be a leader in finding ways to prevent similar tragedies from happening at other live events.

    “I have a responsibility to figure out what happened here. I have a responsibility to figure out the solution,” said Scott.