Photo: Ovidiu Hrubaru / Bryan Regan / Shutterstock
It feels a little too soon...
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on May 10, 2022
Travis Scott, the rapper infamous for his involvment in the Astroworld tragedy which took the lives of 10 people, hospitalized 25 and injured more than 300 back on November 5th, 2021, will be making his return to the big stage much sooner than most would have hoped to see.
He tested the waters in Miami over the weekend, performing at the E11even Club to celebrate Formula 1’s Race Week, and it seemed like people were getting into the performance, but now he’s taking on a bigger stage where eyes all over the country can see him, and not everyone likes that.
Travis Scott will be performing at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.
The rapper’s fans are elated, of course. They’ve taken to Twitter and started yelling to the cancel culture heavens above, “YOU CAN’T CANCEL TRAVIS SCOTT.”
Admittedly, cancel culture did not do the job it was supposed to do (as it never does) and Scott took the opportunity to return to his musical roots.
According to multiple news outlets, his set at Miami’s E11even Club only lasted around 45 mins and included Quavo performing alongside him, but the stage is set for a much larger performance at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.
Last night, Diddy posted a video to Instagram with the caption that he had “BREAKING NEWS!”
"I made a request, I made a demand," he said in the post on May 9. "I said, 'My brother Travis Scott has to perform. Diddy is hosting the show—I'm executive producing—he has to perform.' And NBC said 'yes.' So, it's going down Sunday. Travis Scott will be performing."
Diddy closed the message by saying “that’s love,” expressing his interest in seeing the rapper back up on his feet and performing at shows again, but not all of the internet agreed.
Travis Scott's return to the stage has generated some backlash.
“I don't think Travis should hide away forever, but I still think this is too soon for him to be making public appearances,” said one person on Reddit. “He should have waited at least a year before doing stuff like this.”
“... Something tells me Travis could give a f--k less about what happened,” said another user. “In all honesty, he’s [probably] more emotional at the fact of how much this situation has held his aspirations back.”
Scott has hardly made any efforts or appearances since the tragedy to address what happened.
His Instagram apology was ripped to shreds by the masses for seeming insensitive, and his partnership with BetterHelp was criticized as well.
After a little while longer, he came onto Charlamagne Tha God’s “A Conversation” series where he addressed the situation but appeared to shift the blame and repeat that he didn’t know how severe the situation was or that he wasn’t aware of what was happening, but a lot of people didn’t believe him.
Now, everyone seems to think that he’s coming back too soon and that he should have laid low for a little while longer, but Diddy and Scott had other plans.
While most of his fans are excited about his return and blame Live Nation for the deaths and injuries that occurred, the rest of the people who are angry about the announcement will have no other choice but to hope that something like that doesn’t happen again.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.