Travis Scott has been charged twice before for inciting violence at his concert
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According to several media reports, this is not the first time that a concert of Travis Scott has turned violent.
The Astroworld festival turned deadly last Friday leaving 9 dead and hundreds injured. The festival was headlined by Travis Scott, who was accused by concert attendees for not stopping his performance even as people were crushed in front of him as the crowd surged ahead towards the stage.
According to several media reports, this is not the first time that a concert of the rapper has turned violent. Scott, reportedly, has been charged twice before for encouraging his fans to taunt security and safety guidelines at his shows.
Friday's Astroworld tragedy has made many question Scott's conducts in his previous concerts. Many have been taking to social media to discuss and share videos from other live performances from the rapper in which he encouraged rule-breaking and even violence at his shows.
Astroworld: Indian student Bharti Shahani becomes 9th victim to lose her life following the concert
The tragedy has once again reminded many that the performer has been in serious legal trouble for his conduct at past shows. There have been specific incidents that took place in 2015 and 2017 -in which he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from directives he gave his crowds at two separate shows.
In 2015, Scott was sentenced to one year of court supervision after pleading guilty to reckless conduct charges after telling a crowd at Chicago’s Lollapalooza music festival. Scott reportedly asked fans to vault security barricades. Fortunately, no one was injured at that time.
The same year, it was reported that Scott encouraged his followers to jump the barricade separating the crowd from the photographer pit almost as soon as he took the stage at the Hot 97’s Summer Jam Festival.
Videos from the incident show Scott telling the crowd that there was not enough security to stop them all from hopping the fence, eventually leading to a brief tussle with Security that ended in them being overwhelmed and the crowd taking up the space near the stage.
Watch: Scott performs at Astroworld festival as crowds chant 'stop the show'
Scott had also made headlines for kicking a cameraman off his stage who had no option but to be on stage as the crowd filled up the press bit on the rapper's behest. When he was asked about it later and pointed that the cameraman was just doing his job, Scott said, "that's what a press pit is for," without acknowledging that that pit was flooded with people.
In 2017, he was arrested after he encouraged fans to bypass security and rush the stage, leaving a security guard, a police officer and several others injured during a concert in Arkansas.
Interestingly, Scott's concerts have been dangerous all along - even when the rapper is not directly instructing his audience to break rules. At the 2019 Astroworld concert, three people were injured and taken to the hospital with leg injuries after getting trampled outside the show. Reports stated that when the gates opened, a stampede broke out with many trying to gate crash the ticketed event.
9 people so far have been reported as dead in the aftermath of the tragedy that took place on Friday. The youngest victim was only 14 years old.