Travis Scott’s Lawyer Says Rapper ‘Did Not Know What was Going on’ at Astroworld

Rapper Travis Scott’s lawyer says his client “did not know what was going on” at Astroworld Music Festival last week in Houston, Texas, where at least nine concertgoers were killed due to a crowd surge during his performance.

Scott’s lawyer, Edwin McPherson, told Good Morning America on Friday that the mass casualty incident at Astroworld was “obviously a systemic breakdown,” and people need to wait for police to finish their investigation before “we start pointing fingers at anyone.”

When asked why Scott’s show “continued to go on for another 40 minutes” after officials declared the concert a mass casualty event, McPherson said that Scott and his crew were never made aware of that information until the following day.

“He’s up there trying to perform. He does not have any ability to know what’s going on down below,” McPherson said. “Travis didn’t really understand the full effect of everything until the next morning. Truly, he did not know what was going on.”

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Fans reacted to Scott’s November 5 Astroworld performance by taking to social media to express their outrage, as well as call into question the moral character of the rapper, who they say continued singing “as he watched” fans being injured in the crowd.

McPherson, however, argued that Scott did, in fact, stop his show on multiple occasions when he saw questionable incidents taking place in the crowd.

“He’s on a riser at one point, and he sees one boy down, and he actually asks security — stops the show — he asks security to get to that person,” the rapper’s lawyer said.

McPherson added that another incident, which shows what people say was an ambulance, actually “looked more like a golf cart with some lights.”

“He wasn’t sure what that was, but he stopped the show for that — told people to get aside if they’re okay, put their hands up,” McPherson said.

McPherson added that when Scott is “up on the stage,” there are “flash pods going off around him, and he has an ear monitor that has music blasting through it.”

“He can’t hear anything, he can’t see anything,” the lawyer said.

When asked about Scott’s history of putting on chaotic performances that involve encouraging attendees to take part in unruly behavior, as well as the rapper himself having previously been arrested over incidents that have taken place at his concerts, McPherson said Scott has “grow up a lot” since then.

“Travis, as an artist, has really grown up a lot,” he said. “I have spoken personally to him about this, and he really didn’t understand the magnitude of his power up on the stage, I think, as a young performer, and he’s really matured over the years.”

On Thursday, it was reported that a 22-year-old college senior who was critically injured at Astroworld has died, bringing the death toll from Scott’s November 5 performance to a total of nine.

Now Scott, the entertainment venue Live Nation, and others are facing hundreds of lawsuits filed by Astroworld attendees, including one woman who said she didn’t know she was buying a “death ticket.”

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.