NEWS
Toro Y Moi
Jack BoolToro y Moi pledged to donate all profits from his performance at Travis Scott's 2021 Astroworld Festival on Friday to the families of the eight victims who died.
The performer, also known as Chaz Bear, took to Instagram on Wednesday (Nov. 10) following his performance last weekend at Houston's Astroworld. Friday's event left eight festivalgoers -- ranging in ages from 14 to 27 -- dead and 300 more injured as a result of the crowd reportedly surging toward the stage during Scott's headlining set. Toro y Moi frequently collaborated with Scott on the rapper's early material, including "Chaz Interlude" from the 2013 mixtape Owl Pharaoh and "Flying High" from his 2015 debut studio album Rodeo. The 35-year-old artist's initial social media statement following the deadly festival was, "Team Toro is safe and sound. Sending love to Houston. Thanks for having us, we hope to be back soon! Be safe out there everyone."
In his latest Instagram post, he said he paired the solemn message with a picture of himself smiling "purely for algorithmic purposes only."
"I’d like to send my condolences to the families of those who were killed at AstroWorld last week. The loss of life at a concert is unbelievably sad and discouraging as an entertainer. It’s taken me a few days to process and understand what all has happened," Bear wrote. "To show support, my business/management teams, my band and crew and I are all donating our entire fees and any profit to the families of the victims from the event. Profiting from this event feels completely off and I’d like to encourage other performers to consider helping in someway as well."
He's the second artist who has publicly announced they were donating their performance earnings to the victims' families, after Roddy Ricch took the lead on Sunday, writing, "I'll be donating my net compensation to the families of this incident."
Other Astroworld performers who have offered up their condolences after the "mass casualty" event include Drake, who addressed the families by writing on Instagram, "I will continue to pray for all of them and will be of service in any way I can," as well as SZA, who tweeted, "I'm actually in shock n don't even know what to say .. just praying for everyone in Houston especially the families of those that lost their lives."
Bear added toward the end of this Wednesday post: "We have always promoted a positive, safe space for people to express and have fun. I promise to prioritize our fan’s safety throughout the show. All I ask all of my fans, venue staff and security is that if you ever see someone in distress or in need of any help at a show, please— help them out."
On Monday, Scott announced he would cover the funeral costs for all eight victims as well as partner with BetterHelp to provide free virtual one-on-one therapy for anyone needing it in the wake of the travesty.
Read Toro y Moi's message below.
NEWS
Lil Yachty usually does a great job at feeding his fans new music. It seems like every other week he's got new snippets to tease or loosies dropping on DSPS whenever he feels like it. Just several hours ago, the Georgia multi-hyphenate hopped on over to his SoundCloud page, tHE CONCRETE LeaK sYstem, to share some long-lost recordings.
Per HipHopNMore, there's 11 in total and the origins of them range from 2022-2025. Some of you may remember that Lil Yachty updated this account almost a year ago with 14 tracks. Back then he unleased some unheard collaborations with his 2016 XXL Freshman classmate 21 Savage and singer Vory.
In the time since then, Yachty did drop off a pair of freestyles as well. But this is the latest major collection to be added to tHE CONCRETE LeaK sYstem.
Overall, the cuts here feel reminiscent of his earlier material in that they are more trap focused. However, the main some extra charm with most of the beats featuring some slightly left-field quirks.
They definitely don't relate at all to what Lil Boat has been experimenting with solo catalog wise. His 2023 album Let's Start Here. was a psychedelic rock exploration. Then, there's his 2024 collaboration joint with James Blake, Bad Cameo.
On that, Lil Yachty stepped into the London artist's soundscape in some ways by bringing his warbly singing voice to neo-soul, alternative R&B, and ambient pop.
But unfortunately for the 27-year-old, him sharing of all of this music with his fans has been interrupted to some degree. That's because Yachty is still going back and forth with former Concrete Boys group mate, KARRAHBOOO.
Her initial split from Boat's collective was a shocking development when it originally happened about a year ago. However, as the two rappers repeatedly went at each other's throats, we began to learn more. Yachty was claiming that KARRAHBOOO was incredibly disrespectful to those involved with the group.
Moreover, it led to him claiming that he was writing all of her verses and tracks. KARRAHBOOO has since retaliated, of course, but she really went after him recently. Just two weeks ago, she alleged that he mistreats women poorly overall. "U have a daughter and u treating women like this is mindblowing like I know u never see her but still that doesn’t make sense how evil this man is to women (not just me)," she said in part.
