The attorney representing the 'Sicko Mode' rapper insists 'a systemic breakdown' needs to be addressed, adding that the star was unaware of the festival becoming 'a mass casualty event'.

• Nov 14, 2021

AceShowbiz - Travis Scott had no idea fans were being killed at his Astroworld show last Friday night (05Nov21), while he was performing onstage.

Nine people died from injuries and health issues sustained in the chaos at the festival in Houston, Texas, and the rapper is being held accountable for playing on for 40 minutes after the crowd crush began.

But his lawyer, Ed McPherson, insists Scott was completely unaware of the disaster unfolding before him, because the ambulances called to help victims looked like golf carts to him and he couldn't hear fans' pleas to end the show because of his earpiece.

"This obviously was a systemic breakdown that we really need to get to the bottom of before we start pointing fingers at anyone," McPherson tells "Good Morning America", insisting there was no indication anything was wrong for 40 minutes after Houston Police Department officials declared the festival site a mass casualty situation.

"We've seen footage of police just walking about and not looking like it was a mass casualty event," McPherson adds. "Clearly, the important thing is that never got to Travis, never got to Travis' crew. He is up there trying to perform. He does not have any ability to know what's going on down below. Certainly on a mass level."

"Travis didn't really understand the full effect of everything until the next morning. Truly, he did not know what was going on. He's on a riser at one point, he sees one boy down and asks security to stop the show. You say an ambulance but it looked more like a golf cart with lights, he wasn't sure what that was but he stopped the show for that."

Scott's lawyer insists his client didn't know the extent of the tragedy until the following morning.

"When he's up on the stage and has flash pops going off around him and he has an ear monitor with music blasting, he can't hear anything. He can't see anything."

McPherson claims Scott was also unaware fans had stormed security gates hours before, swelling the sold out crowd to well over 50,000 people.

''He certainly was not aware of people storming gates," the lawyer says. "He doesn't run security. He was preparing for the concert."

The lawyer adds, "Travis as an artist has grown up a lot. I've spoken to him personally about it. He didn't understand the magnitude of his power on the stage, and he has matured over the years. I think it's nothing more than any other performer. You want your audience to be engaged. You don't want them to be sitting down. He didn't have anything like this in mind. He wanted them to be engaged, have a good time. We're coming out of COVID. This is what this festival was all about."

Dozens of concertgoers and the family members of the deceased have filed negligence lawsuits against Scott, his special guest Drake, and festival organisers, claiming the gig should have been stopped much sooner.

A 22-year-old student, attending her first concert, became the ninth Astroworld festivalgoer to lose her life on Thursday (11Nov21).