Travis Scott, Drake, Apple Dealing with New $2 Billion Astroworld Lawsuit

A huge new lawsuit in search of $2 billion in damages from Travis Scott, Drake, Are living Nation, Apple and other folks has been submitted on behalf of 282 plaintiffs connected to the lethal Astroworld tragedy that claimed the life of 10 individuals in Houston.

The new criticism from law firm Thomas J. Henry is the newest iteration of a quick-evolving case that has been escalating exponentially since it was very first submitted on behalf of a solitary concertgoer, Kristian Paredes, on Nov. 8.

“The defendants stood to make an exorbitant quantity of revenue off of this occasion, and they however chose to reduce corners, cut fees, and place attendees at possibility,” Henry claimed in a statement Thursday. “My consumers want to make certain the defendants are held responsible for their actions, and they want to send the concept to all performers, party organizers, and promoters that what took place at Astroworld cannot take place once again.”

The fundamental lawsuit alleges Apple’s multimillion dollar obtain, promotion and implementation of its exceptional on the internet streaming legal rights played a critical function in the group-command disaster.

“Early stories from the investigation of the Astroworld catastrophe reveal that the premises were arranged in a vogue that very best served Apple’s on line streaming of the live performance at the detriment to concertgoer protection,” the lawsuit states.

“Apple Music had cameras, camera stands, cameramen, and steel barriers surrounding each and every these cameras correctly break up the premises equally horizontally and vertically by the steel barricades,” the paperwork claims. “The placement of cameras streaming for Apple Music’s broadcast proficiently minimal lots of concertgoers’ suggests of exit this harmful problem would inevitably stop individuals from dispersing.”

Apple did not quickly answer to a request for comment on the lawsuit Thursday.

“There has been multiple finger-pointing, a lot of which has been by town officers, who have sent inconsistent messages and have backtracked from first statements,” Scott’s attorney Edwin F. McPherson mentioned in a statement to Rolling Stone.

He named out Houston Police Chief Troy Finner for positioning responsibility at Scott’s ft even although Finner told the New York Instances that abruptly pulling the plug on a demonstrate with 50,000 primarily young attendees carried critical issues similar to “rioting.”

McPherson also claimed the show’s reported functions system “designated that only the festival director and executive producers have authority to quit the display, neither of which is aspect of Travis’s crew.”

“This also runs afoul of HPD’s own earlier steps when it shut down the electric power and seem at this extremely pageant when the functionality ran about 5 minutes back in 2019,” he said. “Investigations should really start out continuing around finger-pointing, so that jointly, we can determine precisely what transpired and how we can prevent anything at all like this from happening yet again.”

On Tuesday, a independent lawsuit seeking at least $750 million from Scott, Drake, Apple, Are living Country and other folks was submitted on behalf of 125 plaintiffs by law firm Tony Buzbee.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Buzbee reported the defendants “ignored” a sequence of purple flags and must be held liable. “When men and women say, ‘Tony, How can you sue Apple Television set, the history labels and these other peripheral entities?’ Well I would advise they threw in with this. They had been advertising and marketing this, encouraging this and profiting from this,” he mentioned. “It’s earnings more than folks. And if the present doesn’t go on, people do not get paid out.”

He said no just one was “incentivized to halt this present,” from the allowing procedure by way of the last song executed onstage, due to the fact so considerably funds was at stake.

“I ensure you, had the group attacked the phase or interfered with the performers by themselves, oh my goodness, they would have termed in just about every police officer in a hundred miles. But as lengthy as the performers weren’t in any kind of jeopardy, who gives a shit about the folks in the group, I guess, was the attitude. And it just can’t be like that,” he said.

Scott, whose legal name is Jacques Webster, explained in a Twitter post he was “absolutely devastated” that followers died in the group throughout his exhibit at NRG Park. He added in a online video message posted on Instagram that he “could just by no means think about the severity of the situation” when he was carrying out.

Drake called the deadly live performance a “devastating tragedy” in his have Instagram submit. “I hate resorting to this platform to convey an emotion as delicate as grief but this is in which I discover myself,” Drake wrote. “My heart is damaged for the households and close friends of all those who misplaced their lives and for anyone who is suffering. I will proceed to pray for all of them, and will be of assistance in any way I can, May possibly God be with you all.”

Dozens of other Astroworld lawsuits have been filed in Harris County District Courtroom in Houston, together with one particular by the father of Ezra Blount, the 9-calendar year-aged boy who was trampled at the concert and lingered in a coma for times right before he died Sunday at a children’s clinic.

Buzbee informed Rolling Stone he expects the a variety of satisfies will be consolidated in a single courtroom in Houston below a choose appointed by the Supreme Court docket of Texas, most likely in the next 60 times.

The new episode of our Rolling Stone Tunes Now podcast is a distinctive report on the Astroworld tragedy to listen to the overall episode, push perform previously mentioned, or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.