The Shady Side Of Travis Scott

Travis Scott is someone who can be called an A-list rapper for how well his records chart and how many people attend his concerts. Then, add his girlfriend and the mother of his child, Kylie Jenner, who makes Scott even more well-known with her family's fame. It's an equation that leads to people knowing who Travis Scott is, is whether they're passionate music fans or not.

Long before the riches, fame, and famous girlfriend, Scott was born Jacques Bermon Webster II in Houston, Texas. His first big break came when one of the tracks he produced got the attention of Atlanta rapper T.I., who signed him to his label, Grand Hustle Records. Scott's first official album is 2015's "Rodeo," then "Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight," followed by "Astroworld," a project that gave him his biggest success as a recording artist. But what has Scott done that isn't among his best moments? Could any of his actions be considered shady? There's only one way to find out — to do some digging. Here's what we've unearthed.

Travis Scott and Kylie Jenner began dating publicly in 2017 during Coachella, as TMZ specifies, but two years later, they put their relationship on hold. The break came after it was rumored that Scott cheated on Jenner with model Rojean Kar (aka YungSweetRo), which he denied on Instagram. "It'[s] really affecting when u see false things said about u. Once again these false stories about me cheating are just simply not true,” Scott wrote on Instagram (via Buzzfeed). Kar also responded to the cheating rumor on Instagram, saying it wasn't "true" and was just the "Internet creating a false narrative" (via E! News). She also told people to stop spreading the false gossip because it was "affecting real lives."

That wasn't the only time talk of cheating put a dent in Scott and Jenner's relationship. In early 2019, TMZ reported the rapper postponed a show in Buffalo, New York, during his "Astroworld — Wish You Were Here Tour" and flew back West to deal with allegations that he was unfaithful to Jenner. The two reportedly had a vicious fight over alleged proof that Jenner had obtained, and their argument lasted through the night.

The couple eventually got back together (per TMZ). With an Instagram post in September 2021, Kylie Jenner announced that she and Scott were having their second child. Maybe it would be smart for Scott to bring his mate on the road with him to nip the cheating allegations in the bud. Just a suggestion.

Would you believe that a burger and fries caused Travis Scott to get into a little bit of trouble?

In 2021, celebrities having a meal named after them at McDonald's was quite the craze. For the record, the first celeb ever to have his own McDonald's meal was Michael Jordan in 1992. Decades later, Travis Scott became the first musician to score a deal with the fast-food chain. Scott's signature meal is a Quarter Pounder with cheese (bacon and lettuce added), with fries, barbecue sauce, and a Sprite. But let's get back to Scott and the mayhem he caused, cool?

In September of 2020, the rapper drove to a McDonald's in Downey, California, in his red Ferrari to promote his meal. Then, once word got out that he was there, surprise, surprise! A massive crowd formed. Scott then got on top of a car, danced, and signed autographs. Afterward, he was fined $200 for failing to secure a film permit and for not being authorized to hold an event with over 200 people, according to CBS News. 

Then, in February 2021, the "Sicko Mode" rapper was investigated by Los Angeles city officials after he gathered another huge crowd in West Hollywood to promote his issue of I-D Magazine (per TMZ). So what truth can be pulled from both incidents? If there's anyone who knows how to ignore a city protocol, it's Mr. Scott, for sure.

Travis Scott doesn't have a reputation for being a fighter, or even a hot-head, but he got into arguments with two of his fellow rappers, Meek Mill and Tory Lanez. In the situation with Mill, which happened in the Hamptons in July 2021, Scott argued with him at a fancy-schmancy party. The host was Michael Rubin, 76ers co-owner (per the New York Post). 

Now, it's unclear what the two rappers were beefing over, but whatever it was, Mill wanted to get to Scott badly. "Where's he at?" Mill can, apparently, be heard yelling in a video uploaded to Instagram. Presumably, others at the shindig, including Jay-Z and Jon Bon Jovi, must have hated that the argument happened, because it shut the party down.

As far as the dispute with Tory Lanez, the public found out about it in March 2018 after a video leaked. The clip shows both men on the verge of exchanging blows on what looks to be a tour bus or trailer. The argument was, allegedly, about Lanez responding to an accusation that he hijacked Travis Scott's flow while featured on Mill's song, "Litty" (per Billboard). "I can't sound like somebody I wrote for," Lanez tweeted. Based on the video, it seems Scott approached Lanez over that tweet, and that's when things went awry. "Everybody can get out of here and we can shoot the fade right [now]," Lanez told Scott. Thankfully, cooler heads won that day, and no punches were thrown.

In 2016, former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling for the national anthem before games to protest racial injustice, as well as police brutality, in the United States. He then chose to opt out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers after the 2017 season and hasn't been on a team since, so many believed he was blacklisted for protesting. 

Fast forward to 2019, when Travis Scott was tapped to play at the Super Bowl with Maroon 5 and OutKast's Big Boi. The rapper was ripped for accepting. Nick Cannon blasted Scott on BET's "Raq Rants" while explaining why it was okay for Big Boi to perform. In short, he said Big Boi is "for the people," but Scott would have to "walk gingerly."

It seems Cannon implied that Scott didn't care about social justice, something that was also said of the rapper after he spoke about Mike Brown on Hot 97 in 2014. Brown was an 18-year-old from Missouri who was killed that year by a police officer during an alleged altercation, and Scott wasn't "saying he deserved to get killed," but he also wasn't saying Brown shouldn't "pay for consequences" [that he might've] "inflicted." In 2020, after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, Scott did an about-face on social justice while talking on his .WAV Radio show. Scott admitted that he "was young" and "might've just been misinformed" (via All HipHop).

Florida rapper Denzel Curry was pretty much harassed by Travis Scott's fans in 2020 but was not afraid to address the backlash on social media. Why did Scott's fanbase hurl virtual missiles at Curry? It all had to do with an opinion that he gave during a Twitter Q&A when someone asked if he'd ever work with the Houston rapper. "His attitude funky," Curry tweeted. Afterward, the rapping Floridan sent a message about how angry Scott's fans really were.

"Lol people really mad about me keeping it real about their favorite artist," Curry tweeted. "They actin like I DDT their grandma or sumn." He also wrote that he has Scott "stans" and people with "no hairline" sending him mean messages for calling Scott's attitude funky. If there's a moral to this story, it's this: If you're going to diss Travis Scott, you better disable the comments section on your social media channels first.

Travis Scott's song "Highest in the Room" has nearly half a million views on YouTube. The 2019 single also went No. 1 on Billboard. But a Danish producer named Benjamin Lasnier said neither of those things would be possible without the head-nodding guitar riff that floats through the song, which he claimed Travis Scott stole, according to TMZ. 

Lasnier claimed he uploaded the riff to his Instagram page and later sent it to Jamie "Jimmy Cash" Lepr, a person who works with Scott. Lasnier supposedly heard his riff on Travis Scott's "Highest in the Room" in the latter part of 2019, albeit a "slightly tweaked version" (via TMZ). The producer then sued Scott for his cut of the profits, and he said the track has pulled in more than $20 million. Lasnier sought "an accounting of the profits, damages, and a running royalty share," via TMZ.

Another case, between Scott and Three 6 Mafia's DJ Paul, was closed after Paul sued Scott for allegedly stealing the hook to Three 6 Mafia's 1997 song "Tear Da Club Up" for his single "No Bystanders," released in 2018. It's not clear how much Paul received, but Rolling Stone reported in 2019 that both rappers settled the suit. Paul is now credited as a writer on "No Bystanders," as are the other Three 6 Mafia members, so everything turned out swell for everyone.

On most concert stages, there's a fine line that musicians must walk — along with the many wires that lie on the ground — between ramping up the crowd and starting a riot. In 2015, Travis Scott ignored that line completely when he played at Chicago's Lollapalooza and invited the crowd to leap over the barricades. "Everybody in the green shirt get the f**k" back," he yelled at security, as fans made their way to the stage. As security continued to get overwhelmed, a mini-riot broke out, mostly onstage, and Chicago Police got involved.

After fleeing the scene, Travis Scott was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. A fan from the riot faced the same charge (per E! News). Scott was released on bail, but did the rapper learn his lesson about starting riots? 

The answer would have to be a no on that one, because he was arrested for disorderly conduct, "inciting a riot," and "endangering welfare of a minor" in 2017 after performing in Rogers, Arkansas (via TMZ). That show was pretty much a repeat performance of Lollapalooza; Scott encouraged people to bypass the barricades and access the stage. He was arrested right after his set concluded, put in jail, then released without bail.

Travis Scott was $150,000 richer after being paid to perform at a pre-Super Bowl concert in 2018 at Myth Nightclub in Minneapolis. According to events company PJAM, Scott never should've received that money. Why? Because the company said that Scott never showed up and canceled his performance just hours before hitting the stage. The promoters not only lost the advance they gave him, but they also had to say goodbye to the dough they spent on promoting the show and securing a private jet for the rapper. Scott was supposed to be paid $200,000 total, per Page Six, so he already pocketed most of the money before rapping a word.

After PJAM sued Scott, he countersued PJAM, claiming that the company didn't provide him with agreed-upon travel arrangements (via Page Six). Scott was ultimately ordered to pay $382,932.79 in spring 2019. Ouch! Scott's attorney, Howard King, told TMZ that the verdict was "disappointing but far less than the seven-figure demands made by the promoters." And what was the rapper's excuse for not showing up to the gig? Weather and scheduling issues. But he did show up to other scheduled shows that same night, like one in Las Vegas, which certainly didn't help his case. 

They may be from two different generations and musical genres, but that didn't keep Travis Scott and Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee from getting into a beef. And it wasn't over a riff or lyrics — it had to do with a roller coaster, of all things.

Let's start from the beginning: In 2018, during Scott's "The Astroworld – Wish You Were Here Tour," he rapped on stage while going upside down on an actual rollercoaster. Tommy Lee did something similar on a Mötley Crüe tour in 2011 by playing the drums upside down on a coaster built for the stage. "Just found out this f*cking idiot @travisscott or someone on his team ripped off the 360 AND The Crüecifly. WTF!!" Lee wrote on Instagram. In a separate post with another coaster comparison, Lee added, "Get an original idea, bro. I get copying is a form of flattery, but this is just straight ripping off my sh*t."  

Laurie L. Soriano, Scott's attorney, quickly responded in a statement published by TMZ. She shut down Lee's "outburst" and said he didn't "invent" the roller coaster idea. The veteran drummer then shot back and claimed that Scott hired the same company, SGPS, to design the set, which, in his mind, proved Scott stole the idea. In a shady twist, Tommy Lee was previously sued for (allegedly) stealing this same concept from an engineer! Lee dropped his beef with Scott, but it's safe to assume he won't be playing drums on the rapper's future songs. 

In a 2021 interview with L'Officiel, Travis Scott admitted that he owns so many vehicles, he can't even name them all. During that discussion, the rapper spoke at length about his love for purchasing cars and how he also loves to custom-design them. But just because Scott is passionate about cars doesn't mean he's an expert driver. That was evident in 2016 when he was seen backing his Lamborghini into another vehicle while leaving a parking spot. The Texas native was at Glendale Galleria in Southern California at the time, and a video of the whole incident was shared by TMZ.

In the clip, a valet person can be seen up in arms after Scott backs into the vehicle behind him. The valet then taps on Scott's hood to alert him, right before one of the passengers of the hit vehicle comes out to survey the damage. Fortunately, for all parties involved, there wasn't any harm done to either car, or if there was, it wasn't visible. In the end, it looked like the valet and Scott had an exchange, and the man even helped Scott leave by directing traffic. Maybe Scott should do the whole cliché rich person thing and hire a chauffeur, huh?