I’ve always been a fan of rap and hip hop and spent plenty of money going to shows, especially when I was a college student. When I was a kid - in 1989 - my dad took me and my cousin to see MC Hammer at Lawlor Events Center in Reno. I’m not totally sure what the next show I went to was, but I’ve seen just about everyone that I’ve wanted to see over the years…the only exceptions really being 2pac and Prince. I never would have seen 2pac (I was too young when he died), but I hate to admit that I had the opportunity to buy tickets to Prince’s last show (ever) and decided against it because of monetary reasons, a decision that still haunts me to this day. Anyway, this to say - I’ve been to a hundred shows and feel like I had the opportunity to see everyone that I wanted to see at one time or another. Some were good (Outkast), some were great (Snoop, E40, Run the Jewels), some were horrible (Too $hort, Snoop). But I’m glad I saw most.
My cousin likes to go to a lot of shows, and he’s done his best to convince me to tag along at a bunch of clubs over the past few years but I was just never interested…Riff Raff at the Bunny Ranch, DMX in Reno, Chris Brown in Oakland, but I could never pull myself together to make it. Him and I went to see Jay Z on 9/11 in NY, we saw Snoop at South Lake Tahoe (where I spent a shitload of time at the bar just getting hammered with Snoop’s Uncle Junebug) and went to a handful of other shows that turned out to be a helluva lot of fun just hanging with each other bonding over our love of rap music. I bowed out of the show-going scene around the time my first son was born in 2015: my cousin and I saw Run The Jewels in Oakland at the Fox Theater, and we were in the front row on the balcony when a massive fight broke out a seat or two over from us. A ton of people jumped in. The thought came up - ‘what if I fell off this balcony because of these fucking idiots and paralyzed myself and couldn’t properly take care of my kid?’ Not worth it. It was a great show, but that particular fight highlighted my age. I just wasn’t having as much fun as I used to. I was tired, the music was too loud, everyone was too close, and all I really wanted to do was be at home. Not worrying about some drunk idiots trying to kill eachother.
After the nth show I decided to skip, my cousin asked me ‘if I could get tickets to any show that you’d come with me to, what would it be?’ Without hesitation, I responded: ‘Kanye’.
A month or two later, he hits me out of the blue: ‘Hey I got us second-row tickets to Life of Pablo in Sacramento.’
Second row? ‘How much?’
‘Face. $145.’
Whoa.
So we made plans, rented a hotel room, got a bunch of beer, and got ready. My plan was to buy some merch, a couple of beers, and then make our way down to our seats. Except. When we got there, there were more people lined up at the merch table(s) than there were inside the actual arena. It was a trip. I mean, I get it. I was following it. I understood it. It was basically free money that these merch tables were handing out. Stand in line long enough, buy a few shirts, resell them online for hundreds of dollars more than you bought them for. But when I saw the size of the line(s), I just gave up on the idea immediately. I ain’t here to make money, I’m here to enjoy the show. I’d rather just have a beer. We went down to our seats, sat down, and patiently waited for the show to start. We made nice with the people we were sitting by and everyone was getting antsy. Dude was taking forever. The lights went off (finally). And then this transpired:
["Famous" starts playing and stops playing twice. Kid Cudi came out for a few minutes and they hugged and held each other for what seemed like a long time.]
Kanye: “If you don't got an iPhone, don't put it up. Only originals.”
["Famous" starts playing again and Ye raps along. Then it stops.]
Kanye: [Proceeds to go on a 17-minute rant about Beyonce and Trump and Jimmy Kimmel and everything else going on in the world.]
Kanye: “Shows Over”. [He then drops the mic and runs off the stage]
Lights turn on. Everyone is standing there absolutely dumbfounded.
And that was it. It was surprising but not. I kind of expected some ridiculousness. It was Kanye, after all.
(In googling the show I found the video above…really captures the whole experience…)
But my cousin was pretty drunk, so he thought it was all part of the show. Now I didn’t drink as much, so I said to him ‘man, this is over, we need to get the fuck out of here before people start acting up.’
We argue for a few minutes, agree to stay another 5-10 minutes…and then just observe the room and everything going on around us. We’re looking for clues as to whether or not that could actually be the end of the show. I’m convinced, he’s not. Remember - the same song repeated 3 times followed by a rant, a ‘show’s over’, and then dude running out the door.
Neighbors and I start talking…no one knows what’s really going on but the lights at full blast and there isn’t even any ‘go home party’s over’ music. The vibe is dead. A few people get up and start walking towards the exits, a few people are arguing, a handful of dudes…DUDES…are crying. Some of these guys are arguing about Kanye and Kanye’s intentions. About how he’s not a good guy or how he is. Literally CRYING. Some guys are fighting. Other guys are screaming profanities and throwing trash around. Women are crying. Everyone is asking ‘are we going to get our money back?’
Again, thinking of my kid at home and how far we are from the exits and all the misplaced frustration on display…I turn to my cousin: ‘Man, I’m leaving right now. I ain’t dying for this fuckin’ dude.’ So I get up and head towards the exit. My cousin follows. Every merch table still has a line a mile long. Everyone is bickering on their way out the doors. And we just follow the crowd and drown our sorrows in another 5-10 drinks at random bars on the trip back to the hotel.
A truly ‘Kanye’ experience.
Obviously, no catastrophe happened at that Kanye show. No one died (I don’t even know if anyone was hurt) and it all became another footnote in the wild history of Kanye West. We (eventually) got our money back. And looking back on it now, it was kinda funny. Definitely memorable. But that was the last *big* show I went to…and afterward I just couldn’t justify putting myself in that position any longer. The power of large (maybe-unhinged but certainly irrational) crowds. One of the first shows I ever went to - the Up In Smoke tour in San Jose (2000) - I remember hanging around outside (after the show) when gunshots rang out. We hauled ass outta the area as fast as we could. NONE of this was worth it to me. Not anymore.
But this Travis Scott thing…the Astroworld thing…I don’t know what to think. I never really felt like anyone was ‘at fault’, other than ‘the crowd’ and I certainly don’t know if a guy who’s paid to rap on stage could be held responsible for what a few bad apples (out of 50,000) decide to do. I saw a couple of videos, but I can’t watch this stuff. It gets me too emotionally invested. And here I am losing sleep over countless incidents that don’t involve me or mine - do I need more problems to focus on? Those videos are brutal. And I can’t imagine what these people and their families are going through. Just an absolute clusterfuck. And 10 people are dead - including a 9 year old...For what, exactly?
So the ‘Travis Scott effect’ is almost a coined resller phrase that is meant to explain what happens when Travis Scott puts his influence behind something…he puts a pair of Dunks on and suddenly the value skyrockets. He drops a special burger at McDonald’s (a Big Mac with BBQ sauce) and suddenly people are lining up and stealing posters off the windows. He drops anything and everyone is paying attention - and they’re largely paying attention because somehow Travis Scott equates to money. I want to say the Travis Scott effect is unprecedented, but I don’t know if that’s true. Kanye was there for a minute…still kind of is…but I feel like I’m just one generation removed from TS so don’t totally understood how this happened. Maybe it’s just the first time I’m old enough to recognize it. But I get the feeling that he’s just being used by these corporations…and used in a way that shows that anyone that ‘participates’ in his ‘brand’ (ie: the Travis Scott experience) can create somehow value for themselves. And I don’t want to say ‘he sold his soul’, because I don’t follow him like that, but I don’t understand how any ONE person in the world could have this much corporate interest and still be considered THIS cool. Wasn’t punk music and rap music supposed to be *against* the establishment? Weren’t rappers *against* the status quo? And didn’t corporations look down on rappers? I mean…I dunno…maybe this was an attempt to flip the script…but look at this list of hitters: Nike, McDonald's, Epic Games, Anheuser-Busch, Christian Dior, Sony's PlayStation, Mattel, and General Mills are ALL sponsors of Travis Scott. Those are some big names for a dude who actually dropped this song:
Much like Kanye, this dude is probably close to impossibly rich. And that’s because, somehow, he’s able to turn *everything he touches* into money for someone else. It’s fascinating to watch. It’s like corporations found that athletes aren’t the only types of people that can build their brands…MJ, Lebron, Ye and Travis. Each and every one of these guys can turn a corporation ‘cool’ overnight with the proper product placement and image. Imagine having that kind of power. And what’s really wild is that this power trickles down. It trickles down to stores and shops and then even regular people; regular people like you and me and those 12-year-olds at Sneakercon hawking Travis’ goods for 10-25x retail. It’s crazy. The amount of ‘added value’ this dude has created is astonishing. It’s just so much.
What makes Travis Scott so cool? I don’t know…but I’d assume it’s most of what makes most 'rock stars’ cool. That ‘rock star’ mystique is obviously part and parcel with him, but this seems (to me) to be the first time that corporations have actually backed it and encouraged it and made a shitload of money off of it. (Isn’t this the first time McDonald’s had made a burger for a rapper?) So all of the money to be made off this dude from every facet of the marketplace just makes a huge impact. And making money off of something can definitely be considered ‘cool’, I suppose. Travis Scott is paid to endorse shit. And he’s paid to rap. And I’m sure when you mix those two things together, you get a whole lot of people who are interested and will do whatever it takes to ‘have fun’ and ‘make money’.
And so…I dunno…this whole thing just seems like a recipe for disaster. I don’t know anything about Astroworld and I don’t know much about festivals, but it looked almost exactly how I expected it to…a bunch of youthful exuberance mixed with drugs and alcohol and then add the opportunity for show-goers to make money? Yeah, not a chance in hell I’d go. Zero interest.
I thought, maybe, it would be interesting to track resale prices of Travis merch before and after all of this, but I genuinely don’t think there will be any impact. It’s just another one of those ‘unfortunate’, ‘didn’t happen to me’ situations that will go away as quickly as it came. It’s funny what money does to people.
I know there have been a few people in the space advocating for ‘holding Travis responsible’ and I think it’s just misguided. I don’t buy it. Truthfully, I can’t imagine how anyone thinks a guy up on stage with a focus and a job to do is somehow responsible for all of the stuff that goes on out in the crowd.
There’s this cool story that Shea Serrano tells on No Skips about the time he was at a Bun B show and Bun B was rapping along to ‘Murder’ and this massive fight broke out right in front of the stage and Bun B didn’t even bat an eye…he just kept rapping along. The guys fighting kind of expected people to jump in and put an end to everything, but the crowd just backed up and let them duke it out. After a minute or so, the guys stopped fighting, looked at eachother, shrugged it off and retreated back to their corners. The show continued. Shea got a chance to ask Bun about that particular experience a few years later and Bun told him that when he first started touring, Too $hort told him that wherever he puts his energy and focus (ie: the fight), that’s where the energy of the crowd would go. So he chose to ignore it and focused on his job, instead. And the situation ended up working itself out. Point being - you can’t focus on everything going on around you. Sometimes you just have to focus on your job.
And as you might remember - I was a high school teacher in East Oakland for a few years…I had several classrooms full of 30 students…all kinds of personalities at any given time. Many of them had issues at home or issues at school or issues in general, like the vast majority of people. So when they came into my classroom, the goal was to take them out of that world for a minute and put them in a different headspace. But occasionally a fight would break out…and what exactly am I supposed to do? Sure, I’ve stepped in the middle of several fights and have almost had my own face smashed in quite a few times, but did you know that school management actually asks that teachers stand back and let them duke it out? Nobody wants to be responsible for what happens to a teacher who tries to break up a fight. So…yeah…teaching geometry and a fight breaks out - am I responsible for that fight? I’m trying to get kids interested in the Pythagorean Theorum and this dude is pissed off that this other dude stepped on his shoe in the hallway before class. What does that have to do with me?
Imagine somehow being called out to accept responsibility for 50,000 people who came to have fun and dance and mosh and do whatever it is that people do at shows. That’s an absurd ask.
I’m not going to talk much more about this, but I thought @mrchuckd_pe really contextualized the whole situation in a few paragraphs way better than I ever could:
(I was kinda hoping to echo a very similar sentiment and I’m super proud that what Chuck D penned is right along the same lines as what I was trying to say and I’m super happy that someone famous did it way better and shortly before I did and had a much bigger platform from which to do it from).
Again - if there’s anyone to blame in this situation - I’d also advocate for blaming the corporations - the companies making untold millions off of this dude and then trying to blame him when something goes wrong. Sounds like the typical corporation. My dad once told me, a long time ago, in relation to a corporation, ‘Fuck them before they fuck you.’
If I had a few minutes to tell Travis what I think he should do next - I’d say ‘Man, you have enough money to fill a football field, and that money is always going to be there. If I were you I’d take a break to reclaim my sovereignty. Cancel all of those endorsements or do the bare minimum until those contracts are null and void. Bounce on those corporations and tighten up on the endorsements that actually support who you are as a person and as an artist. Good luck.’
Who’s got next? Meg Thee Stallion.