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Travis Scott and Astroworld: The Devil Went Down to Houston (Rewind) · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: story about a music festival. And not just any music festival.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: A disastrous music festival led by one of the biggest
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: musical stars in the world, Travis Scott. But this is
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: also a story about, well, hell, and one of the
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: dirtiest of the seven deadly sins, greed. And this is
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: also a story about the devil, and what happens when
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the devil is in control. It's the story of a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: supposed satanic sacrifice, an energy harvest wherein innocent souls were stolen.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: This is a story about Travis Scott's Astroworld, a festival
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: that contained Some great music. Unlike that music I played
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: for you at the top of the show. That wasn't
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: great music. That was a preset loop from my Mellotron
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: called Barbarian Bolero MK1. I played you that loop because
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I can't afford the rights to Easy On Me by Adele.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: redemptive torch cheese could I afford it?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Because that.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Was the number one song in America on November 5th, 2021.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: And that was the day that a music festival organized
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: by a hometown hero in Houston went horribly awry, plunging
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: tens of thousands into what truly felt like hell on earth.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: On this episode, greed, satanic sacrifices, snatched souls, and Travis
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Scott's Astroworld. I'm Jake Brennan, and this.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: This Disgraceland. Hell.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: That was a word used to describe the COVID-19 pandemic,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: especially by frontline workers who witnessed the worst of the
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: infectious disease at close range. Here in the U.S., in
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: January of 2021, just about a year after the first
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: case was recorded in Washington state, cases suddenly surged nationwide.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And it's not difficult to understand why. Social distancing, masks, isolation,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: That type of behavior, it's not normal. Those restrictions, human
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: beings aren't supposed to live with them. We require contact, interaction.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: We need to be around other people. Whether it's at
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the movie theater or a concert venue or a church
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: or a ballpark, shared experiences are crucial to the human experience.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Coming out of COVID, what we wanted more than anything
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: was to have those experiences again. To get our lives back.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: To feel that sense of normalcy. A sense of ourselves
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: in social settings with other people. But we had to
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: relearn it. Months, a year spent in isolation meant we
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: were collectively rusty. So, we conjured a spell. One we
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: hoped would heal the pain of COVID. But instead, we
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: created a monster. A malevolent entity with a mind of
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: its own. And for those unlucky enough to get in
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the path of this monster, they found themselves staring down
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the very thing we all thought we'd escaped from. Hell.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: November 5th, 2021. Houston, Texas.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: 9 a.m. The crowd outside Energy Park was growing restless.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Some fans had been there long before sunrise, but the
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: gates wouldn't open for another hour.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: So they were forced to wait. But what they really.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Wanted was to be letting out all that emotion and
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: aggression that they'd stored up during the COVID-19 pandemic in isolation.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: They wanted to rage.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Check that.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: They were under a directive to rage. Per the organizer
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: and headliner of the third annual Astroworld Festival, the hip-hop
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: artist Travis Scott. Raging was Travis Scott's ethos. the kind
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: shared by a hardcore punk audience or Travis's beloved world
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: of professional wrestling. A Travis Scott show implied physical audience participation,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: mosh pits, crowd surfing, stage rushing. And while part of
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the allure of Astroworld was the eclectic two-day lineup, with
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: performances by Bad Bunny, Tame Impala, SZA, and Earth, Wind & Fire,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: to name a few, Travis Scott was different. He was
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: a hometown boy, made good and all that. Two solo
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: albums that debuted at the top of the Billboard album chart,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Birds in the Trap, Sing Goodnight, and Astroworld. The latter
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: named after the former Six Flags amusement park in Houston
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: that once stood near the music festival's location. A compilation
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: album called Jack Boys, also number one. Number one singles, too.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: And don't forget the merchandise collaborations with Hot Wheels, with Nike,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: with Reese's, and most famously with McDonald's, who just one
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: year prior had made Travis the first celebrity to be
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: featured on their menu since Michael Jordan way back in 1992.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: My point is Travis Scott in November of 2021 was huge.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: But back home in Houston, Travis Scott was beyond huge.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: He loomed large, just like that giant statue of him
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: now loomed over the growing crowd of hundreds impatiently waiting
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: for the gates to open and let them into NRG
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Park and into the Astroworld Festival. Once inside, their eyes
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: would be opened to a whole new universe, Orso promised
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: the promotional posters. See you on the other side, the
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: poster read, next to a sketch of a pair of
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: hands with big eyes stuck in their palms in what
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: looked to be a two-lane road descending down a large tunnel.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Above that tunnel was a crude drawing of a figure
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: walking through a doorframe.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: A whole new universe. The other side.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Here.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Tonight.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: The crowd that was assembled outside the gates understood the
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: assignment at hand. To get to that other side, they
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: had to push the party to the edge of total chaos.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Only then would the experience be truly transformative. The crowd
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: had done this in 2015 at Lollapalooza in Chicago when
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Travis Scott encouraged fans to jump the barricades, to give
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: any and all security guards the finger and to chant,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: we want rage. Travis got the boot just five minutes
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: into his set, but not before a 15-year-old girl was
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: injured in the resulting stampede, for which Travis Scott was
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: charged with reckless conduct and sentenced to one year of
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: court supervision. Two years later, in 2017, Travis was charged
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: with disorderly conduct in order to pay restitution to multiple
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: people who were injured when he once again instructed fans
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: to rush the stage during a show in Arkansas. And
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: just weeks after that, at a show in Manhattan, Travis Scott,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: on stage at Terminal 5, looked up at a fan
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: dangling from the second floor balcony about to fall into
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: the audience below. I see you, but are you going
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: to do it? Travis asked from the stage. The kid hesitated.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: They're going to catch you, Travis said. Don't be scared.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Don't be scared.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: The kid let go.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: It was dropped safely into the arms of his fellow concertgoers.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Not so lucky was the next fan to fall from
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the same balcony, who did so not under his own volition,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: but because he was pushed as the crowd surged against
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: his back. He tumbled over the edge, falling fast, hitting
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the floor with such force that he immediately broke several
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: bones in his vertebrae and was paralyzed. Now, on November 5th, 2021,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: at Astroworld, Those who had been injured and disabled at
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: previous Travis Scott shows were a distant memory. COVID felt
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: like a lifetime ago, a really bad dream that everyone
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: had since woken up from. Here now, it was all
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: about moving forward, onwards and upwards from the past year
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: and through these gates. And so, even before the gates
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: officially opened at.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: 10 a.m., that's what many were doing.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Crawling under fences, knocking over barricades, snapping the chain-link fences
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: with bolt cutters.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Even those who weren't supposed to be there.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Literally thousands more are showing up beyond the 50,000 ticketed attendees.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: And when the gates did open for real, it was
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: like a swollen river bursting a dam. No order, no chill,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: just a swarm of bodies, mostly teenagers and young adults,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: feet pounding the pavement, some pushed, some pulled, some falling
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: to the ground, trampled, entire sections of fencing flattened. They
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: skipped security checkpoints, knocked over metal detectors. The first set
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: by the first artist of the day wasn't for another
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: three hours, but none of that mattered.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Time right now moved just as unpredictably as it had
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: during the pandemic. But you, you're moving with purpose. You're
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: trying to get safely past the crush at the gate.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: And get inside, which you do. And the first point
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: of interest you encounter is the merch booth. Hundreds, if
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: not thousands of bodies are running straight for it. The
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: barricades set up to maintain an organized line of commerce
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: are being ignored. Kids are jumping them or just pushing
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: them aside, cutting the line if there was even a
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: line to cut.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: The crowd grows. The bodies push forward.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: You're caught in the flow, against your will, so you
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: find a way out and take it. And just at
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: that moment, the crowd gets really crazy. Kids, adults, normal
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: human beings suddenly gone feral. They want what they want
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: and they're going to take it. As you walk away,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: you watch as people start to pounce on the merch counter,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: grabbing t-shirts, grabbing for registers full of cash, whatever they
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: can get their hands on. Minutes later, you hear some
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: dude telling his girl that the merch area was shut
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: down after multiple requests for police and medical attention. By
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: this point, you've made your way through the giant whitehead
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: statue of Travis Scott that leads into the main concert area.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: It's the same bust of Travis on the cover of
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: his Astroworld album. You walk straight through his open mouth,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: which is kind of rad, but also kind of gross
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: at the same time. And then, right up ahead, you
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: see it. just like it was shown to you on
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the Astroworld posters. That long road descending into a large tunnel.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: But this road is actually a stage, which looks not
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: unlike an inverted cross. And the large tunnel that this
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: inverted cross sprawls into is actually a circle, constructed in
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: layers to create depth. That circle is drilled into an
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: even bigger backdrop, which is shaped like a mountain. Right now,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the mountain is black with a tan outline, nondescript. Just
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: another man-made structure.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: In broad daylight. But tonight, at 9 p.m. to be exact,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: it will change. Everything will change.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Because that's when Travis Scott will take the stage. That's
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: when that nondescript man-made structure will become possessed. That's when
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the monster will take over. And you and every other
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: person here willingly or not, will be taken, kicking, and
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: screaming to the other side. By 8.30 that evening, the
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: mountain backdrop on the Astroworld stage was glowing yellow, then orange,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and then red. The audience was well beyond capacity. Remember,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: that's 50,000 people, due to all the gatecrashers who overwhelmed
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Astroworld's infrastructure. The incredibly bright colors radiating from the stage
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: cut through the dark Houston night, bleeding all over the fences,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: staring back. And the layered circles at the center of
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the mountain began to glow red, too. Then the words,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: see ya on the other side, were followed by a timer.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: It started at 30 minutes and immediately began to count down.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Fans had spent the last seven plus hours watching sets
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: by Master P, by Don Tolliver, by Lil Baby and others.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: But they were beyond sight for their hometown hero. Each
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: minute that the timer counted down was a minute closer
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: to Travis Scott.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Closer to rage. Closer to that other side.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: 25 minutes.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: 20. 15.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Around the 10-minute mark, in the front left quadrant up
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: near the stage, a huge surge in the crowd came
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: from behind. It was violent and quick, and there was
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: no choice but to be carried along. People were packed
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: in so tight that you either had your arms straight
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: up in the air or straight down by your side.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: It was like you'd look directly into the eyes of Medusa,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: turned to stone with a snap.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Arms pressed against your chest, Fists.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Clenched near your neck, your head leaning back, face angled
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: up to the open sky, gasping for a few tiny
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: breaths above the fray. The air of anticipation and excitement,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: so often present at the start of a show like this,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: suddenly blotted out by a feeling of dread. Someone screamed,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: and then another. War cries and sounds of warning. The
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: blood-red light from the stage intensified.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Five minutes.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Four.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Three.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Two. One. An organ rang out, started low and then building.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Ancient history, reanimated but still rotten. The layered circles in
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the center of the mountain on stage began to glow
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: deep red. The monster was alive now, taking shape. It
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: sent forth a messenger to announce its arrival. An image
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: of a bird or a dragon was flapping its wings
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: in a cloud of fire at the top of the mountain.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and the organ music became auto-tuned, inverted just like that
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: cross of a stage. Without warning, Travis Scott jumped from
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere, his feet landing hard, the music hitting
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: even harder. Bass, treble, organ, fire. Huge flames shot into
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the sky all around him. Travis's first song.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Was called Escape Plan.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Ironic, seeing as there was no escape as the crowd
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: once again surged forward. This time, the surge was harder
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: and more forceful than before.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Bodies sandwiched into other bodies.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: So tight that you could feel your lungs compress and
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: the air leak out of you. If you've ever been
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: in a crowd crush before, you know how frightening it is.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: Not just the realization that your oxygen supply has been
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: cut out, or of the adrenaline and the survival instinct
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: that kicks in to save you, but the feeling that
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: you've completely lost control. Thousands of bodies all becoming one,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: moving as one, ebbing and flowing as one. Your feet
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: literally lift off the ground. You are moved from one
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: spot to another. It's like you're being carried away on
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: a gigantic wave in the ocean. Only the ocean is
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: other people, just like hell is other people. And make
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: no mistake, hell was here, on Earth, at Astroworld. The
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: monster's voice was in the bass frequencies, so loud that
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: it felt like the ground was about to split open
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: and swallow everyone whole. The monster's tongue was in the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: flames that continued to erupt all over the stage. Darkness
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: devoured the light. The mountain was a volcano.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: The center of the layered circle morphed into.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: A giant eyeball, darting to the left and then to
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the right, looking at all 50,000 plus people out there, looking.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Directly at you.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: All-seeing, all-knowing. The crowd crush swelled again as the inverted
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: church music mixed with an ear-splitting hip-hop beat. And the
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: intended effect was one of release and catharsis. But in reality,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the effect it created was one of pure panic. Some
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: couldn't handle it. They crouched down on one knee, attempting
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: to catch their breath. Instead, they were plowed over by
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: the bodies surrounding them, knocked to the ground, stepped on, trampled.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Mosh pits were collapsing in on themselves. Broken feet, broken hands,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: dislocated shoulders, blood running from the noses and blood pouring
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: out of mouths. Eyes rolling into the backs of heads,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: blue lips, gray skin. A college student, splayed out on
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: the ground, unconscious, maybe dead. Someone started CPR on her
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: while others screened for a medic. A nine-year-old boy on
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: top of his father's shoulders, thrown forward when his dad
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: was caught up in the crowd crush. The boy was
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: launched into a mass of arms and legs. One second
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: he was right there, and the next he was gone.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Things were going very, very badly. But not everyone knew it.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: If you watch videos taken by those in the crowd,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: you can hear people screaming help and stop the show
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: in between songs.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: The footage is chilling.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: You could see people climbing up on risers to get
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: the attention of camera operators, yelling to them that the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: show had to be stopped, that people were dying. But
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: you could also hear other fans making fun of the whistleblowers,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: telling them to calm down.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: The crowd was just too big.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: The music, the lights, the pyro, all of it was
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: waging a constant, all-out assault on the senses. On stage,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Travis Scott was hoisted in the air on a riser
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: of his own.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: He looked down on the mass of flesh.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: He watched one kid escape the crowd and climb up
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: one of the trees there on sight. It was like
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the guy hanging from the balcony in Manhattan all over again.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Taking his cue from the kid in the tree, Travis asked,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Who wants to rage? Some in the crowd roared their
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: approval while others went hoarse calling for medical attention.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: Voices of terror mixed in with voices of.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Rapture, no telling the two apart. But then, For a
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: brief moment, it seemed like things would turn around. Travis
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: noticed an ambulance pushing its way through the audience, en
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: route to someone who was passed out and needed medical attention.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: He stopped the show. He watched silently as the fan
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: was helped. The smartphone video of this moment shows actual
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: concern in Travis Scott's face, but also confusion. Almost like
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: he's stuck in a moment, as if he went somewhere else. Slowly, though,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: he came back. 30 seconds later, he asked everyone who
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: was okay to stick a middle finger in the sky,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and the fingers went up. And then, just 60 seconds
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: after he stopped the show, it was back on.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: The music blasted. The flames erupted.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: The ambulance slowly made its way out while Travis was screaming,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I want to make this motherfucking ground shake, goddammit. He
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: was the quote-unquote maestro directing the chaos, as the Washington
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: Post once wrote about him. Exhibiting that trademark unhinged leaping,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: as Rolling Stone magazine put it, when they compared Travis
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Scott's frantic stage presence to Michael Jackson's iconic moonwalk.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: But Travis Scott didn't do moonwalks. He didn't glide on
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: the ground. He shook it.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: At 9.38 p.m., a little over a half hour into
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Travis Scott's set, the Houston Fire Department had seen enough.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Way too many calls for people being trampled, passing out,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: in need of CPR and other urgent medical attention. At
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: that moment, 9.38 p.m., Houston Fire officially declared Astroworld a
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: mass casualty event. Houston PD informed the festival's promoters that
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the show had to end right now.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: But the show didn't end. The monster wasn't ready to
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: go back in its box. We'll be right back after
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: this word, word, word.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: 10 p.m. 22 minutes after the Houston Fire Department declared
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Astroworld a mass casualty event, Travis Scott continued to perform,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and he was doing so now with a surprise guest,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the Toronto rapper and singer Drake, who joined Travis on
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: stage to euphoric applause.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: From the crowd below.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, in that same crowd, medics made a desperate search
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: for those who needed help.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: The cries of the wounded.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: And the dying rang out, only to be drowned out
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: by the throng. Bodies were being hauled over barricades and
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: passed over shoulders as if they were crowd surfing. But
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: these bodies were limp. And in many cases, the medics
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: on hand were ill-equipped.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: No defibrillators.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: No oxygen. Just their bare hands. One medic did have
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: a backboard to transport an unconscious woman. But the backboard
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: had no straps. It was a struggle to carry the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: body through the crowd of people. Many didn't move aside.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Others were oblivious, too caught up in the sight and
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: sound of Drake and Travis on stage. The medics lost
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: their grip and the unconscious woman began to slide out
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: of the backboard with no straps. She hit the ground
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: directly on her head. Elsewhere, another ambulance made of a
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: labored slog threw thousands of people. A couple of fans
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: jumped on top of the vehicle and began to dance
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: on it. One concertgoer Later compared the sight of people
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: trapped in the crowd to pigs in a cage. Others
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: said they were literally in hell. At 10.14 p.m., 14
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: minutes after Drake's arrival and now over half an hour
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: since the mass casualty event declaration, Travis Scott finished the
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: last song of the night.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Pastor World was officially over.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Just one minute after a 23-year-old attendee, the festival's first fatality,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: died at a nearby hospital. Ten people in total died
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: from injuries sustained at Astroworld that night. All of them
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: in their teens or twenties, with the exception of a
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: nine-year-old boy. I told you about him earlier. Ezra Blunt
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: fell off his father's shoulders when the crowd surge hit
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: them from behind.
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: His father could.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Not find him, and did not find him until much later,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: when Ezra turned up as a John Doe at the hospital.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: He was put into a medically induced coma and died
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: shortly thereafter. News of the Astroworld tragedy quickly hit the wires.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: The next morning, Travis Scott issued a statement that read
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: in part, I'm absolutely devastated by what took place last night.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: My prayers go out to the families and all those
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival. On TikTok, Instagram,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: and Facebook, survivors posted videos they had taken during the
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: show that clearly documented the harrowing sequence of events. With
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: those videos came not just outrage and shock from other
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: users online, but some extremely disturbing interpretations of what was
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: really going on, or so some were saying. The search
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: term Astroworld sacrifice began to trend on TikTok. The so-called
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: interpretations followed. Astroworld was a satanic ritual. Astroworld was a
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: quote-unquote energy harvest in which Travis Scott put people under
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: a spell and snatched their souls. Just look at the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: demonic imagery. The flames, the giant eye, the stage that
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: looked like an inverted cross, the shirt Travis was wearing
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: with cartoon figures walking through a portal and emerging with
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: what seemed to be horns on their head. And this
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: is a sampling of what people were writing on TikTok
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and Twitter and elsewhere. If you don't believe that there
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: was nothing demonic about the whole concert, you are spiritually blind,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: and I pray that God.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Opens your eyes.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of Travis Scott, but this is
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: some demonic-ass shit in this one, which referred to the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: fact that Astroworld attendees were required to have proof of
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: a negative COVID test or a COVID vaccination. Quote, jab
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: plus 5G in frequency at concert equal dead.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Unquote.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Just to reiterate, the imagery and the video and the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: first-hand accounts coming out of Astroworld were so fucked up
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: that people were saying jab plus 5G in frequency at
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: concert equal dead. In other words, that this was some
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: mass conspiracy involving the government and the music industry to
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: kill people at a Travis Scott show. Coming out of
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: the COVID pandemic didn't bring us together. It started to
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: pull us even further apart. Consider this. The very next day,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: November 6th, Troy Finner, Houston's chief of police, held a
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: press conference, a portion of which was spent addressing these
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: wild rumors that were circulating online. He reminded people to
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: be respectful of the families of those who have been
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: killed and to follow the facts and the evidence. He
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: said there were a lot of narratives out there, including
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: one in which Astroworld had been a targeted attack by
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: an individual who was running around and injecting people with drugs.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: TMZ was one of the news outlets peddling this narrative,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: saying a source connected to Astroworld told them that the
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: crowd crush was due to the panic that ensued when
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: word got around that some crazy person was stabbing people
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: with a needle and shooting them up. At the press conference,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Houston's chief of police did not shut down this particular story. Instead,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Chief Troy Finner went on to essentially confirm this story.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: He said that.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: According to medical staff, one of Astroworld's security guards was
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: reaching over to restrain someone in the crowd when he
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: felt a prick in his neck. Immediately, he went unconscious.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: He needed to be revived with Narcan, which, as you
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: probably know, is used to treat narcotic overdoses. And the
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: medical staff that examined him confirmed that there was a
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: mark on his neck consistent with a needle prick. So
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: here you have the top-ranking official in Houston's police force
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: seemingly confirming one of the wild rumors floating around online
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: and in the press. Which, in turn, caused even more
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: panic and even more confusion. Panic and confusion. Two things
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: now keeping the monster of Astroworld alive. November 10th, 2021.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: Five days after the tragedy at Astroworld and four days
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: since Houston's chief of police spoke about a festival security
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: guard getting pricked in the neck with a needle. Chief
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Troy Finner was now giving another press conference. This one
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: in which he walked back his statement from four days prior.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: During that time, he had spoken directly to the security
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: guard in question, and what the guy had to say
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: for himself was far less sinister than previously believed. Turns
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: out the security guard was not injected in the neck,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: but instead hit in the head and knocked unconscious. He
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: woke up shortly afterward in the medical tent, and there
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: was no needle and no Narcan. and no faceless, nameless
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: demon running around the Astroworld grounds, shooting up unsuspecting attendees
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: with drugs. Which begs the question, who provided this targeted
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: attack narrative in the first place? Who is the, quote,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: source connected to Astroworld, unquote? Who provided TMZ with this
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: information in the first place? Information which TMZ had since
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: taken down from its website. And speaking of questions, why
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: didn't the show end at 9.38 p.m. that night when
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: the Houston Fire Department declared it a mass casualty event?
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: When the Houston PD told the promoter to shut it down?
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Why did Travis Scott keep performing for more than another
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: 30 minutes? There were no clear answers offered to these questions.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: The cops, the promoters, the security.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: The county, Travis Scott, everyone involved passed the buck. The
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Houston PD said they didn't have the proper authority to
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: shut the show down. Security guards spoke of poor training
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: and worse communication. One Houston City Council member stressed that
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: the event was technically not held on city property, so,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: you know, not their problem. Of course, no one wants
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: to admit they played a part in creating a monster,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: especially one that takes the lives of 10 people. But
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: someone would be held accountable. and the families of victims
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: were going to make sure of it. Two years later,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: in 2023, Travis Scott sat in a room in Houston
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: where he was grilled for eight hours during a civil deposition.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: A Texas grand jury had declined to indict him on
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: criminal charges, but 387 lawsuits were brought against him, against
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: Live Nation Entertainment, and against various subcontractors. 387 lawsuits representing
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: nearly 2,800 victims and totaling billions of dollars in damages,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: all rolled into a single legal action. These were in
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: addition to the 10 wrongful death lawsuits filed by families
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: of the deceased. Travis Scott maintained his innocence. He said
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: he didn't know how bad it was out there in
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the crowd, and he wouldn't know the extent of the
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: carnage until the next morning. He did admit that someone
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: spoke to him during his performance, shortly before 10 p.m.,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: right around the time that Drake joined him on stage.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: A voice that came through his in-ear monitors and said, Yo.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: Trav, you gotta wrap it up, it's getting kind of
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: hectic out there.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Not, people are getting crushed, stop the show. Not, people
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: can't breathe, they're passing out, maybe dying. Just, it's getting
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: kind of hectic out there. And so, Travis Scott wrapped
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: it up. It just took him another 14 minutes, give
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: or take, to do so. Attorneys representing the plaintiffs were skeptical.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: They couldn't prove if the voice coming through Travis' in-ear
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: monitors had more explicit instructions. But there were other things
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: that were hard to write off. Like the fact that
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: if Travis wanted to pocket an additional $ 4. 5 million coming
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: to him from the concert's live stream, he had to
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: finish his complete set as planned. In other words, ending
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: early meant losing a massive payday. It sounds cynical, I know,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: but attorneys are paid to be cynical. So these attorneys
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: filed an emergency motion to obtain Travis Scott's phone records,
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: the thinking being that by doing so, perhaps they could
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: uncover some evidence to prove.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: That he knew more than he was letting on. There
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: was just one problem. There was no phone.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Travis Scott's phone, his cell phone, the one he owned
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: at the time of Astroworld in 2021, it was gone.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: Like, long gone.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: And just months after the festival, in January of 2022,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: while on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, Travis
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Scott's cell phone fell into the water and sank all
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: the way down into the murky depths below. But a
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: phone wasn't all Travis Scott lost. In May of this year, 2024,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: it was reported by the Houston Chronicle that all 10
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: lawsuits filed by the families of the 10 Astroworld victims
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: had been settled. including the one on behalf of nine-year-old
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Ezra Blunt. Travis, Live Nation, other companies and individuals, they
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: settled those lawsuits for undisclosed sums and under confidential terms.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: In many cases, just days before the suits were scheduled
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: to go to trial. The news came mere months after
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: the revelation that Astroworld organizers miscalculated a state fire code
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: when planning the event. According to that fire code, each
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: person at the show needed seven square feet to prevent overcrowding.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: So by that math, capacity should have been about 34,500 people. Instead,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: the organizers mistakenly settled on five square feet per person,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: resulting in the 50,000 fans that were ticketed. That's a
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: difference of more than 15,000 people. 15,000 extra people. That's
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: no small detail. But the devil is in the details.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: That may be true.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: But for thousands of people on a warm Texas night
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: in November, the devil was at Astroworld.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: And that was a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: is Disgraceland.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: All right, guys, thanks for checking out this incredibly dark
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: episode on Travis Scott. Before I get to the question
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: of the week, I want to remind you guys we're
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: doing this live stream event.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: I want you to be a part of it.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: It's on October 9th. I'm going to be telling the
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: story of Blink-182's Tom DeLonge. and his work with UFO disclosure.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: And there's a lot of creepy government cover-up and conspiracy
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: attached to this. Go to moment.co slash disgraceland to get
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: your tickets. That's for October 9th. You guys can be
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: a part of the show with me. Thank you for
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: checking out this episode on Travis Scott and Astroworld, where
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: 10 people died.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: 10.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: So, question of the week for you guys is, what
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: is music's darkest day? Was it this disaster? Was it
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: a plane crash? A riot? A murder spree?
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Serial killing? What was it?
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: There is so much evil in the history of music
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: that the choices here are kind of endless when you
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: think about it. So let me know what day or
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: event was the darkest for music history. 617-906-6638. Leave me
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: a voicemail. Send me a text and let me know.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: You can also reach me at DisgracelandPod as well on Instagram, X,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: and Facebook. Leave a review for the show on Apple
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Podcasts or Spotify and win some free merch. All right,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: here comes some credits. Disgraceland was created by yours truly
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: thank you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it.
• 35:39
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• 35:41
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• 35:46
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• 35:50
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• 35:55
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• 35:59
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• 36:04
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• 36:08
  Speaker 1: And on YouTube at YouTube.com slash at DisgracelandPod.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: Rock a rolla.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: He's a bad, bad man.