Scott is hardly alone in the entertainment world in the way that he energizes crowds, but his style and history have taken on new focus after the mass casualty event at his music festival in Texas.
Footage from the day of his performance showed a throng of fans shoving their way through a VIP entrance, destroying it in the process. The massive crowd that formed before his show grew to around 50,000 people. «I wanna see some ragers, man,» Scott said at one point during his Astroworld set, according to Reuters. «Who wanna rage?» Scott is hardly alone in the entertainment world in the way that he energizes crowds, but his style and history have taken on new focus after the mass casualty event at his music festival in Texas. At least eight people were killed and 300 were injured during Scott’s Houston set last week as the crowd of about 50,000 surged toward the stage. Concertgoers were crowded and trampled in the chaos, and witnesses described gasping for air or giving CPR to victims who’d fallen unconscious. Scott, whose real name is Jacques Webster, said in a video statement he was «honestly just devastated» and that he stopped the show briefly when he noticed an audience member needed help and again when he saw an ambulance. He resumed the show after those pauses and continued to perform 30 more minutes after officials declared a mass casualty event at the festival. But the crowding at Astroworld is in line with Scott’s brand of rowdy concerts where fans can go wild, said Noah Shachtman, Rolling Stone editor-in-chief. «The warning signs on this one go way, way back, unfortunately,» Shachtman said in an interview with CNN’s John Berman. Scott’s past concerts resulted in some injuries to fans and officials there for security and two arrests for the rapper. One concertgoer filed a lawsuit after he said he was paralyzed at a Scott concert after falling from a balcony. Scott and the other defendants have denied the allegations in the lawsuit, according to court filings. He’s been charged with inciting riots at previous concerts Scott has been arrested at least twice for incidents at his concerts. The first was during a 2015 Lollapalooza performance, when police said Scott told attendees to climb over security barricades, according to CNN affiliate WLS. «The performer played one song and then began telling fans to come over the barricades,» Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management said in a statement to WLS at the time.
