Travis Scott's New Spokesperson: The Ex-Mayor of Baltimore

CBS Mornings caught an interview with Travis Scott’s new spokesperson early Friday morning. Seems like it is ex-Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Huh. Rawlings-Blake spoke with Gayle King, who introduced her like this:

If her name and her face sound familiar, it’s because she’s used to dealing with tragedy and controversy, she’s the former mayor of Baltimore and she’s now serving as Travis Scott’s spokesperson.

This isn’t the first time Rawlings-Blake has spoken on Travis Scott’s behalf. According to WSVN, the two were “introduced by a mutual friend.” Yesterday, Rawlings-Blake told CNN’s Erin Burnett that Scott was “absolutely devastated” by the deaths at the Astroworld Festival last weekend:

“His heart is bleeding for his fans,” she said.

Speaking from Houston, Rawlings-Blake said that she spent over four hours with Scott on Wednesday and is working with him to ensure that they are speaking with city administration and the promoters

“We’re doing everything that he can do in his power to make sure that no fan ever loses their life at another concert,” she said.

“He is angry. He is upset that this happened,” she said, adding, “I think the finger-pointing is just — It is unproductive. He at his heart wants to reach out to the families. He also wants to reach out to make sure that something like this never happens again.”

You may remember Rawlings-Blake from when she was Mayor of Baltimore from 2010 to 2016, elected after her predecessor Sheila Dixon was convicted for embezzlement. She became particularly notorious in 2015, during the protests following the murder of Freddie Gray. Rawlings-Blake took heat from both sides — some disagreed with her delayed intervention in the protests (she declined to call in the National Guard and request a state of emergency from the Governor for several hours), while others criticized her statements in a news conference where she twice referred to protestors as “thugs.”

She later announced she would not run for reelection the following year. SRB also served as Secretary for the Democratic National Committee and as the 73rd president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. She now runs a consulting firm, SRB & Associates. Rawlings-Blake did not immediately return Gawker’s request for comment.

If you’re thinking, “hmm, those seem like odd credentials for someone speaking on television for a chart-topping artist currently facing dozens of lawsuits due to a crowd massacre that happened at his music festival, resulting in nine deaths and more than 300 injuries,” I would say: I agree. But she has some experience with showbiz. In 2015, Rawlings-Blake appeared as the Mayor in a Baltimore production of the Broadway musical Chicago. We hear she was just fabulous.