Kanye West came to Travis Scott’s defense after a recent headline claimed Billie Eilish dissed Travis at her last show, saying “I wait for the people to be ok before I keep going.” Kanye wants Billie to apologize to Travis before he takes the stage with her at Coachella. Kanye claims Billie threw “shade” at […]
At least one Astroworld Festival victim’s family didn’t appreciate their loved one being used as a prop by Kanye West when the volatile star demanded an apology from Billie Eilish on behalf of Travis Scott, calling Ye’s comments “hurtful” and “ridiculous,” according to Rolling Stone.
Bernon Blount, whose nine-year-old grandson Ezra Blount was the youngest victim of the crowd crush at Astroworld that left nine others dead and hundreds injured, said, “To hear Kanye’s words, that’s hurtful to us. What an idiotic thing to say.” Ezra’s grandmother Tericia Blount also had words for Kanye, saying, “I think it’s just crazy, and I hate to use that word, but I think it’s ridiculous. She’s making sure that she is caring for the patrons at her concert, and I just think that’s crazy of Kanye to even let that demand come out of his mouth.”
Eilish issued the statement for which Kanye demanded an apology at one of her recent shows, stopping performing until a distressed fan received medical attention. Explaining to impatient concert attendees why she wasn’t performing, she said, “We’re taking care of our people. I’m waiting for people to be OK until I keep going.” Reporting on the incident, some outlets interpreted her comment as a dig at Travis Scott, who reportedly continued performing during the crowd crush, at least 30 minutes after authorities declared a mass casualty event.
Kanye, taking his cue from one of those outlets — a gossip Instagram page that simply framed Billie’s statement as a straight-up diss — posted his all-caps apology demand on Instagram, threatening to cancel his upcoming Coachella headlining set otherwise. In response, Eilish commented, “Literally never said a thing about Travis. Was just helping a fan.”
The Blounts appear to be taking Eilish’s side in the disagreement, with Bernon telling Rolling Stone, “That’s crazy that he wants someone to apologize for putting the welfare of someone else before their profits. That’s someone who needed their asthma pump. They could have lost their life, right then. This world is twisted, and we have to stop doing this.” Terecia echoed this sentiment, saying, “I totally commend Billie Eilish for having that decency about her. I think what she did was wonderful, and I would love to tell her myself how brilliant and awesome she is for doing so.”
In recent years, Ye (aka Kanye West) has been open about dealing with bipolar disorder. Perhaps most notably, on his 2018 Ye track “Yikes,” he says, “That’s my bipolar sh*t, n****, what? / That’s my superpower, n****, ain’t no disability.” Since then, though, some people have decided to use his mental health against him and Ye is tired of it.
In an Instagram post last night, Ye called out Billie Eilish for seemingly dissing Travis Scott’s handling of the Astroworld Festival tragedy, when she paused a recent concert because a fan was having an urgent health issue. “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going,” Eilish said on stage. Ye noted, “I NEED BILLIE TO APOLOGIZE BEFORE I PERFORM.”
(Eilish responded, by the way.)
He followed that post quickly by sharing a screenshot of a comment that’s presumably representative of many comments he received on the previous post and others over the years. The user wrote, “Man’s off the meds album gonna go crazy.” Ye captioned the post, “THE WORLD IS RACIST SEXIST HOMOPHOBIC AND CRAZY PHOBIC AT OUR CORE ITS CHEAP AND DISMISSIVE TO SAY IM OFF MY MEDS ANYTIME I SPEAK UP PHOBIA IN THIS SENSE DOESN’T MEAN BEING AFRAID OF IT MEANS NOT GIVING POWER TO LETS BE MORE CONSCIOUS AND NOT WRITE EACH OTHER OFF SO EASILY.”
Indeed, some comments on the Eilish-targeted post use Ye’s mental health for punchlines. Examples include, “why is kanye having his midlife crisis on instagram feed,” “Bro has lost his mind,” “are u good?,” “oh he’s really lost it,” “Lmao u r manic beyond compare,” “take your meds baby,” and “Kanye take your meds pls…”
Well, that didn’t take long. Less than two hours after Kanye West posted on Instagram demanding that Billie Eilish apologize to his would-be Coachella special guest Travis Scott for her comments during a recent show, Eilish responded in the comments to notify West that she not only has no intentions of doing so but she also doesn’t have anything to apologize for.
Kanye, who, like many, interpreted Eilish’s recent comments as a dig at Travis Scott posted the all-caps demand after apparently coming across an Instagram gossip account’s report of the facts. “COME ON BILLIE WE LOVE YOU PLEASE APOLOGIZE TO TRAV AND TO THE FAMILIES OF THE PEOPLE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES NO ONE INTENDED THIS TO HAPPEN TRAV DIDN’T HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING WHEN HE WAS ON STAGE AND WAS VERY HURT BY WHAT HAPPENED,” he wrote, before adding the threat, “NOW I NEED BILLIE TO APOLOGIZE BEFORE I PERFORM [at Coachella, where Billie is also set to headline].” This is the rockstar equivalent of getting skunked at pickup so you take your ball and go home, but Billie handled the situation as graciously as could be.
“Literally never said a thing about Travis,” she reminded the mercurial rapper. “Was just helping a fan.” This is, in fact, what she did, stopping her show mid-performance to ensure a fan who couldn’t breathe got an inhaler while noting, “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going.” Some construed this as a slight toward Travis Scott, who reportedly performed for nearly 40 minutes during the Astroworld mass casualty disaster, but anyone who’s been to enough shows can tell you this is something performers say quite a lot — I mentioned in my recap of 2019’s Real Street Fest that Kanye’s own former artist Big Sean did and said as much during his own set.
Billie Eilish responds to Kanye West asking her to apologize for allegedly dissing Travis Scott:
“literally never said a thing about travis. was just helping a fan” pic.twitter.com/kMLCwk0Hzh
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) February 10, 2022
If Travis Scott’s feeling guilty, that’s on him to settle with his own conscience. And while Kanye is running around demanding apologies perhaps he should consider offering one of his own for the last five years he subjected us all to.
It looks like Travis Scott is still headling Coachella after all — sort of. After the Houston rapper was dropped from the lineup following the mass casualty disaster at his own Astroworld Festival last summer, it appears he found a loophole to get back on the stage at Coachella (no, not that petition full of fake signatures): by joining Kanye West’s headlining set instead. Kanye appeared to confirm that he planned to bring out Travis in an Instagram post today, writing, “YES TRAV WILL BE WITH ME AT COACHELLA.”
However, there’s one other caveat: Fellow headliner (and Travis replacement) Billie Eilish must first apologize to Travis Scott for hurting his feelings. In Kanye’s all-caps post, he railed against Billie for her comments during one of her own recent shows, during which she stopped performing to get a distressed fan medical assistance. “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going,” she said. Some fans interpreted the statement as a shot at Travis, who reportedly continued performing for almost 40 minutes after authorities had declared a mass casualty event at Astroworld.
According to Kanye, “TRAV DIDN’T HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING WHEN HE WAS ON STAGE AND WAS VERY HURT BY WHAT HAPPENED.” However, without an apology from Billie for… explaining herself, I guess… Kanye says, “I NEED BILLIE TO APOLOGIZE BEFORE I PERFORM.” I’m not sure there’s an opt-out clause in his performance agreement for being insulted by pop stars half his age. He also recently demanded an apology from the whole Kardashian family for his own antics, so maybe he’ll spend the extra sulking time figuring his life out.
Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever, The World Tour is officially in full swing. Last night, she was in Washington D.C. to perform and she and brother Finneas even stopped by The White House to say what’s up to President Joe Biden. But something Eilish said on stage this past weekend at her Atlanta concert has really ruffled Kanye West’s feathers, and now his Coachella headlining appearance could be in jeopardy if Eilish doesn’t act.
A fan in the Atlanta crowd was apparently having trouble breathing and needed an inhaler. Eilish was made aware of this and briefly stopped the show. “Do we have an inhaler? Can we just grab one?” she asks the arena, before someone presents an inhaler to the fan. “We got one! Guys, give her some time. Don’t crowd. It’s ok, relax. We’re taking care of our people!” she says, reassuring the fan. Then as the situation calms down, Eilish walks back to restart the show and says, “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going.”
During her latest concert, Billie Eilish noticed that a fan was having trouble breathing.
So she stopped the entire concert of 20,000+ people — all for one fan — then told her crew to bring an inhaler so the fan could breath again.
This is humanity. pic.twitter.com/o09mhZG8Co
— Goodable (@Goodable) February 9, 2022
This was interpreted by some as a reference to Travis Scott and the tragic crowd control issue at the Astroworld Festival that left at least ten people in the crowd dead. Kanye West just caught wind of what Eilish said and in an Instagram post today and demanded (in all caps) that she apologize to Scott for the comment, or he won’t perform at Coachella — where Eilish and Ye are both headlining. He also said that Scott wouldn’t perform either, whom he subsequently confirmed in the post is going to be his guest performer at the festival.
COME ON BILLIE WE LOVE YOU PLEASE APOLOGIZE TO TRAV AND TO THE FAMILIES OF THE PEOPLE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES NO ONE INTENDED THIS TO HAPPEN TRAV DIDN’T HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING WHEN HE WAS ON STAGE AND WAS VERY HURT BY WHAT HAPPENED AND YES TRAV WILL BE WITH ME AT COACHELLA BUT NOW I NEED BILLIE TO APOLOGIZE BEFORE I PERFORM
Eilish has yet to issue a response.
Billie Eilish is not taking any chances with getting caught up with a concert disaster. The Grammy award-winning artist was performing in Atlanta when she stopped the concert to help a fan out who seemed to be struggling. She asked the fan if she needed an inhaler, had security personnel assist the fan, and asked […]
Stormi Webster is officially a big sister. Earlier this afternoon, Kylie Jenner announced the birth of her second child with Travis Scott by sharing a black and white photo of the new baby’s hand. She shared the birth date, 2/2/22, indicating her second child was born last week, and also included a blue heart emoji, leading many people to believe her new baby is a boy. Since TMZ is also reporting the baby is a boy, it seems like that’s probably the case, but Kylie hasn’t officially confirmed the gender yet on her own.
At least this is some positive news for Travis Scott, who has understandably been lying low since the horrific tragedy at Astroworld last year, a festival that left nine attendees dead. Looks like the fans who were convinced Kylie had her baby back in January were just a little premature. Congratulations to the happy couple, and knowing the way the Kardashian content machine rolls, we’ll be getting photos of this little guy some time in the very near future. Here’s hoping that after witnessing what Kanye and Kim are going through right now with custody of their children, Travis and Kylie are able to keep things cordial as they co-parent.
Billie Eilish just recently kicked off the tour behind her new album, Happier Than Ever — as in, three days ago recently — but she is of course already making headlines. The young pop star has already been known to keep things incredibly real with her fans, and the general public, and seems to be hyper aware of her own role when it comes to checking in on the safety and health of her fans at shows.
At a concert in Atlanta on Sunday night, Eilish interrupted her entire set to make sure a fan got the inhaler she needed, instructing her security to bring one from backstage. TMZ has footage of her (above) seemingly addressing last year’s tragedy at Astroworld, saying “I wait for people to be okay before I keep going.” She calmed the rest of the crowded auditorium while that fan recovered, and got huge cheers for her statement.
The issue at Astroworld was that Travis Scott kept performing, allegedly oblivious, while nine fans were trampled to death. Obviously, that’s a nightmarish situation even if Scott was totally unaware of it happening, but it seems very unlikely anything of that nature could happen at an Eilish concert.
Though Billie followed up her debut album incredibly quickly, releasing her second record only two years later, rumor has it she’s already back in the studio again, working on yet another new album. Now that’s dedication.
With nearly 400 suits filed against the Astroworld Festival organizers Live Nation and Travis Scott, the Texas Judicial Panel On Multidistrict Litigation has officially agreed to combine the suits into one case under the state’s multidistrict litigation process. Both plaintiffs and defendants wanted to combine the cases for simplicity. The new case will include at least 387 separate lawsuits with almost 2,800 alleged victims, with nearly $3 billion at stake. The suits argue that Live Nation and Travis Scott were negligent in the planning and execution of the festival.
According to Billboard, there was at least one hold-out, Brent Coon & Associates, that “argued in December the process was unnecessary” but fell in line with the rest. The case could also include additional “tag-along cases” that were filed later, with some victims dropping cases during litigation.
Live Nation and Travis Scott were sued in the wake of the Astroworld Festival when eight people were killed and nearly 300 others were injured by a crowd crush during Travis’ first-day closing set. Members of the crowd were suffocated and trampled as Travis reportedly performed for nearly 40 minutes after a mass casualty event had been declared by authorities. Two more victims died from their injuries after the festival, including one as young as 14 years old.
