Travis Scott Trolls Coachella With 'Utopia' Billboards
Palm Springs, CA – Travis Scott may no longer be performing at Coachella 2022, but evidently it hasn’t dulled his sense of humor.
The 30-year-old rapper was originally tapped to co-headline the Indio, California festival until he was kicked off the lineup following his deadly Astroworld Festival in Houston that claimed the lives of 10 people and injured hundreds more last November.
An online petition calling for Scott’s removal from Coachella amassed over 70,000 signatures, citing his “gross negligence and sheer lack of compassion for human life” during the Astroworld tragedy.
Ahead of Coachella’s post-COVID-19 comeback this weekend — its first installment since 2019 — billboards promoting Travis Scott’s upcoming album Utopia have appeared on the very road that leads to the festival grounds.
Allegedly located on the I-10 highway in Palm Springs, the series of four billboards contain the messages “Psst……. Looking for UTOPIA? WRONG WAY!” followed by the logo of Cactus Jack, Scott’s record label.
Photos of the billboards were posted on Cactus Jack’s official Instagram page on Sunday (April 10) with Coachella tagged as the location.
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Fans in the comments section certainly seemed to find the location of the billboards amusing, with one writing, “Crying at this being on the road to Coachella.”
Other fans speculated the billboards may be hinting at the arrival of Dystopia, a rumored mixtape that will supposedly precede the eagerly-anticipated Utopia.
Travis Scott’s close friend and collaborator Kanye West was recruited to replace him on the Coachella lineup until he voluntarily pulled out last week, leaving $8.5 million on the table.
The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia have since been confirmed as replacements, joining fellow headliners Harry Styles and Billie Eilish. Coachella 2022 begins April 15-17, followed by a second weekend on April 22-24.
The Utopia billboards add more fuel to the fire of excitement for Travis Scott‘s new album as the controversial rapper readies to his comeback. In December, La Flame resumed his album rollout by adding “Utopia” back into his Instagram bio, before debuting a pair of custom Utopia-themed Apple AirPods Max headphones the following month.
Prior to his Astroworld Festival, Scott dropped two singles — “ESCAPE PLAN” and the J. Cole-assisted “MAFIA” — and appeared to have put the finishing touches on the project with help from his trusted producer/engineer Mike Dean.
“I’m working with some new people and I’m just trying to expand the sound,” Scott told i-D magazine last February. “I’ve been making beats again, rapping on my own beats, just putting everything together and trying to grow it really … I’m evolving, collaborating with new people, delivering a whole new sound, a whole new range.”