The 'Goosebumps' spitter is blasted by the victims' families following his first interview since the tragedy, noting that his 51-minute talk 'didn't heal' them.
- Dec 11, 2021
AceShowbiz - Travis Scott (II) has landed in hot water following his first interview since his deadly Astroworld Festival. The "SICKO MODE" rapper was slammed by the victims' families and attorneys for causing "more pain" to them.
Speaking to Rolling Stone on Thursday, December 9, the lawyer for the family of Axel Acosta, who died at the festival, criticized the 30-year-old's 51-minute talk with Charlamagne Tha God. Tony Buzbee said, "You don't get to punt back responsibility somewhere else. These are lessons we learn as children."
"If he said, 'I might not be solely the problem, and I'm not solely responsible but that my conduct played a part,' that doesn't alleviate the families of their pain, but it at least doesn't cause any more," Tony added. "What he's doing now is just causing people more pain."
Jennifer Pena, whose brother Ruby Pena died at the festival, insisted that Travis should have been more active at stopping the festival set. "There's videos of people telling him to stop this concert, and he didn't. How could he not know?" she continued. "I still think he's guilty in some sense, in my opinion."
"The first minute they told him to stop the concert early, he could have been like 'Stop.' He should have been like, 'Okay,' and then investigated what was happening," Jennifer told the outlet. She then alleged, "But he still continued. I think he could have avoided all of this. He could have stopped the concert and avoided all of this death."
In the meantime, Valerie Cortinas Fisher, the Pena family's attorney, told TMZ, "I can't speak to whether or not it helped him heal. It seemed to be kind of an exercise in expressing his feelings to the public." Valerie continued, "So if that was his endeavor, I hope he was successful in it as far as the family are. It didn't heal them. No."
Elsewhere in the conversation, Valerie revealed that Travis hasn't spoken with Rudy's family members. "That has not occured. That has not been anything that Rudy's family has really even considered," she said.
Valerie went on to say that Rudy's family will keep going back to that belief that "[Travis] can portray [himself] as sorry, [Travis] can portray [himself] as very affected by these events and they hope that he is." The attorney concluded, "Because [Rudy's family] certainly are and will forever be."
During his first interview, Travis insisted that his music doesn't incite people to be aggresive at his concert. "I mean, most of the music is, to me, sometimes talking about what I see at the shows. That's just, you know, the energy. But the energy isn't to come and start being ultraviolent and hurting each other," said Kylie Jenner's baby daddy.
Travis also said he was on an "emotional roller coaster" following the tragedy, noting that "it really hurts." The rap star, who recently asked the court judge to dismiss the billions worth of lawsuits against him "with prejudice" in his first legal response, claimed, "It hurts the community, it hurts the city. It's just been a lot of thoughts, a lot of feelings, a lot of grieving and just trying to wrap my head around it. I really just want to be there. Wish you could just hold everyone, talk to them, have conversations."
Travis, who offered to cover the victims' funerals but was rejected by half of the victims' families, also insisted he was unaware of the severity of the situation. He told the radio/podcast host, "It wasn't really until like minutes until 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. No idea. People pass out, things happen at concerts, but something like that?"
