A new report released by the Houston Police Department (HPD) last week revealed a host of details about the deadly 2021 Astroworld crowd crush, including that headliner Travis Scott had a multimillion-dollar agreement with streaming service Apple Music that depended on the show’s completion. it’s unknown if this agreement contributed in any way to Scott’s decision to continue performing even as the crowd began to panic and surge.
In November 2021, Apple, Travis Scott, Drake, and Live Nation were hit with a $750 million lawsuit over Astroworld deaths.
the 1,266-page report released by HPD mentions a $4.5 million incentive Scott would be paid by Apple Music upon the completion of the show. The music streaming arm of Apple was an official partner for the event and live-streamed his performance even as hundreds of bodies were compressed in the crowd at NRG Park in Houston on November 5, 2021.
Noted on page 1,096 of HPD’s report is a contractual agreement between Scott and Apple Music. The contract included five stipulations that would have to be fulfilled in order for Scott to receive the $4.5 million sum. “Of those 5 acts, one was to complete the show,” the report reads.
News of the contract stipulations under which Scott performed shed new light on a deadly event that safety experts have characterized as largely a product of poor planning and cut corners. Days after the tragedy, Scott’s spokesperson Stepanie Rawlings-Blake told CBS Mornings that Scott had no authority to stop his performance.
“They have a 59-page operations plan, and it clearly says the only two people [who have] the authority to stop the concert, were the executive producer and the concert producer,” Rawlings-Blake said.
MacDailyNews Take: Kylie Jenner, Travis Scott’s girlfriend, later claimed that they were not aware of the severity of the crowd crush until after the tragic concert ended. She said that if they had known, they would have stopped the music immediately. This standard contractual condition – “complete the show” – does not necessarily invalidate Scott’s assertion that he did not fully perceive or understand the severity of the crowd’s distress.
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When you’re up on stage, and performing, your focus is on that, it would presumably be difficult to know if the crowd is being crushed or not. But if it becomes obvious, you stop’
Also that would be the easiest contract lawsuit to win in history. “So your saying you stopped the show because thousands of people were at risk of imminent injury or death?” “Yes.” “Case dismissed.”
It’s standard procedure to place in the contract that the performer complete the show. That’s kind of a no brainer. Why? Probably because in the past some performers have done flaky things and walked off the stage.
It’s absurd to think this in any way contributed to what happened.
Also I agree that any performer would stop the show if they thought there was harm to the audience. But with that many people and all that noise and the lights on stage which interfere with you seeing the crowd, it can be difficult to judge what is going on.