After being questioned for hours in a deposition now tied to the hundreds of cases lodged after the he fatal crowd crush horror at Travis Scott‘s 2021 Astroworld festival, rapper Drake is fighting to be dismissed from the lawsuits – saying he had no involvement in the event’s organisation.
Drake is fighting to be dismissed from the web of lawsuits linked to the fatal crowd crush horror at Travis Scott’s 2021 Astroworld festival.
The rapper, 37, was a surprise guest at the Houston festival was questioned for hours in a deposition tied to the hundreds of cases that have been filed in Harris County after the fan rush that caused the deaths of 10 people and left hundreds of others injured.
Drake was named in the lawsuits despite him stressing he had no involvement in the planning or the organisation and, according to Billboard, a new motion filed in Houston shows attorneys for the singer – born Aubrey Drake Graham – are arguing he should never have been involved in the cases.
The lawyers say Drake he had no involvement beyond being asking to join Travis, 32, on stage, and stated festival bosses had “confirmed under oath that Mr Graham was not involved in any planning”.
Attorneys also argued Drake was unaware of any safety problems before taking to the stage, stating: “Mr Graham did not receive any security briefings, was not informed of any crowd control issues, injuries or deaths in the crowd, or any stop show orders at any time either before or during his 14-minute performance.”
They added Drake instead “arrived at the venue at approximately 7.30pm and remained largely secluded backstage in a trailer until approximately 9.54pm”, before he was “informed to take the stage”.
Drake was then said to have “immediately” taken the stage “as requested”, performing for “approximately 14 minutes” before exiting the stage at 10.08pm.
Lawyers also said “hundreds of hours” of depositions and “hundreds of thousands of pages” had found no evidence Drake could be held liable for negligence.
They said: “Plaintiffs produce no evidence that Mr. Graham actually knew of any risk in the Festival site design and layout, competence or adequacy of Festival staffing and personnel, or emergency procedures such as show stop authority.”
The alleged victims will reportedly have a chance to respond to Drake’s motion in the weeks ahead.
Travis has said he was “absolutely devastated” by the festival tragedy, saying he will “always think about it”.
On the same day that Glastonbury welcomed back Margate's adopted sons, The Libertines, Margate itself put on it's very own Leisure Festival as it...
Sheffield's very own all girl group Pretty Fierce are still on a high after the recent release of their debut single - 'Ready For Me'.
Three nights before the end of his current tour Will Varley returned to his home town of Deal to delight a sold out crowd in The Astor Theatre.
With only a few days to go before Portsmouth based songstress and producer WYSE releases her new single, 'Belladonna', we caught up with her to find...
Colorado raised, Glasgow educated and Manchester based Bay Bryan is nothing if not a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist performing as both...
Former Marigolds band member Keelan Cunningham has rediscovered his love of music with his new solo project Keelan X.
Wiltshire singer-songwriter Luke De Sciscio, formally known as Folk Boy, is set to release is latest album - 'The Banquet' via AntiFragile Music on...
Electronic music pioneer and producer Annie Elise says that the release of her first EP - 'Breathe In, Breathe Out' feels "both vulnerable and...
Back in 2009, before he signed to Lil' Wayne's Young Money label through Cash Money/Universal,...
Sid, Manny and Diego are doing a good job so far of surviving the Ice...