The money is being spread out across several initiatives to help students and also ensure safety at live shows.
Houston rapper Travis Scott has been feeling generous lately. The Sicko Mode rapper is donating millions to community-based initiatives in the coming weeks that aim to help students, aspiring creatives and potential future concertgoers.
Project HEAL looks to be Scott’s philanthropic attempt to propel himself back into the mainstream and convince everyone he is actually a really good guy. So far, Scott has poured around $5 million into the project.
TMZ reports that $1 million has been allocated towards 100 scholarships at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU), and it appears he’ll be using his already established Waymon Webster Scholarship Fund to allocate, manage and disperse these awards for high-achieving Black scholars.
Scott hopes the injection of funds will assist at least 100 students in finishing their senior year, averaging a 3.5 GPA or higher.
“Waymon Webster was a Dean of the Prairie View A&M graduate school,” Scott said in a statement. “My grandfather wanted me to take it all the way through college, I feel there is a power in education so to be able to give someone the opportunity to fulfil that dream as my papa thought for me is amazing.”
The remainder of the $5 million will apparently be split up between several different enterprises, including free mental health programmes for vulnerable kids, as well as Scott’s creative design programme offered through his Cactus Jack Foundation.
Further funds have been earmarked for safety precautions for fans at future concerts and shows as the fallout from Astroworld 2021 continues to cast a long shadow over the rapper’s reputation.
Essentially, rehabilitating his image is what all this is about. The cause of the crush at his Astroworld event in Houston last November is still the subject of a huge legal investigation, as lawsuits representing around 2,800 victims of the disaster have been combined into one.
This has left Scott staring down the barrel of potential billions in lawsuits. The judge in the combined suit issued Scott with a gag order, meaning he would have to refrain from any public comment until a verdict is reached, and this new announcement about Project HEAL has been labelled by some of the victims’ layers as a violation of this order.
Speaking to the DailyMail.com, Bob Hilliard, an attorney from Texas who represents 708 victims, said: “However well-intentioned Mr Scott’s belated largesse may or may not be, there seems no reason to issue a press release or announce the specific part of the initiative as it relates to putting money into concert safety and making sure fans are safe at shows, other than to improperly attempt and sway potential jurors with the message, ‘Look at me, I’m a good guy’”.