Hip-hop enthusiasts conjectured Travis Scott would be the ideal lineup substitute for the Donda 2 rapper after Kanye West canceled his headlining appearance at Rolling Loud. However, one of the Miami festival’s founders swiftly disproved that notion, claiming Scott was treated badly by venue management as a result of his connection to the catastrophic crowd rush at his Astroworld Festival the previous year.
Now, according to the event’s organizers, Scott was not at all prohibited from performing at Hard Rock Stadium and that comment was made out of exasperation by festival co-founder Tariq Cherif.
“We reached out to Travis to headline Rolling Loud, but it couldn’t work in such a short time,” a spokesperson for the festival told Rolling Stone. “This had nothing to do with any restrictions from the hosting venue Hard Rock Stadium.”
The “venue won’t allow Travis because of Astroworld deaths,” said Cherif in response to fan comments on Instagram about the festival’s last-minute lineup change on Monday, sparking rumors about a potential ongoing blacklist of the “Sicko Mode” rapper. Ten people died and hundreds were injured as a result of security flaws at Astroworld. (West will be replaced by Kid Cudi as the festival’s opening night headliner on Friday.)
The troubled rapper is being sued for allegedly triggering a stampede at Rolling Loud in 2019 in addition to being the target of numerous Astroworld-related lawsuits, including a recent wrongful death claim brought by a lady who lost her unborn child during the event.
“This is another blatant, cynical attempt to attack Travis,” a representative for Scott said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “As even the complaint makes clear, this incident was related to a false report of a shooting mid-show, completely unrelated to Travis’s performance… This cheap opportunism is based on a blatant lie that’s easy to detect.”