On Friday, rapper and Kylie Jenner’s baby daddy Travis Scott dropped his new album, Astroworld.
But when it came to light that a transgender model had been conspicuously deleted from the album art, Travis came under fire and people began to wonder if he might be transphobic.
Travis has now broken his silence on the controversy and apologized to trans model Amanda Lepore.
Sharing a new message on Instagram, Travis Scott took to the captions to confirm: “EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO ASTROWORLD!”
He shared a thoughtful message to make his feelings on the matter completely clear.
“Thank you David LaChapelle and Amanda Lepore,” Travis writes. “And everyone that came out to make all the covers and the vision come to life!”
Travis shares that he was unwilling to remain silent on the controversy, writing: “This is very important for me to speak up about:”
“Growing up I’ve been taught to accept everyone,” Travis reveals. “Not to cast people away but bring them in your home!”
“I have nothing but respect for the LGBTQ community,” Travis says, laying to rest any fears that he harbored bigoted beliefs.
Travis continues, writing: “I want to use my voice to make it clear that everyone on this planet is as equal and f–king awesome to the next.”
That is such a good, beautiful sentiment!
“Me and LaChapelle set out to create images that I grew up watching him create for years that inspire me today,” he explains, referring to the artist and photographer who created his album art.
“Yo, Amanda, you did upstage everyone,” Travis writes to trans model Amanda Lepore, who had joked that she had been removed because she’d upstaged everyone. “Even me.”
Travis then shared the version of his album art in which Amanda Lepore was included.
“I can’t wait for everyone to see the booklet that me and Dave put together,” Travis continues. “That includes all these images.”
“Thank you for being a part of it,” Travis writes to Amanda. “Sorry for the misunderstanding.”
Writing to both LaChapelle and Amanda and everyone who worked on the album art, he says: “Love you guys and THANK YOU ALL!!!”
“EVERYONE,” Travis reiterates. “IS WELCOME TO ASTROWORLD!”
Some conspiracy theorists may speculate that it was planned that Amanda would reveal that she had been a part of the album art.
Why? Because it created a controversy, and a controversy means added attention.
Accusations of transphobia means attention from trans folks, the broader LGBTQ+ community, and advocates. They also bring diehard transphobes looking to defend a fellow bigot (which Travis, of course, is not).
And then entertainment news reports on it. It’s a free album promotion.
Then, Travis comes forward and makes it clear that he’s not a bigot, once again reminding everyone that his album exists.
We are not saying that we believe that this was a calculated ploy. But there are some people who do.
We should of course always be on the lookout for bigotry. There are, however, genuine situations in which people make choices for artistic reasons that have nothing to do with prejudice against anyone or their identity.
For Travis Scott’s album, LaChapelle created a series of photographs, depicting some sort of carnival that turns into a lust-filled, wild place at night.
We, too, look forward to seeing more photos that have yet to be released.
We are glad that Travis Scott’s response to the controversy was so affirming. It would have been easy for him to ignore it or simply give a terse reply.
