Rap superstar Drake has been dropped from a lawsuit blaming him in part for a deadly stampede at the rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld music festival in 2021.
Drake was a surprise guest at the November 2021 concert where 10 people died in a horrific crowd crush.
The "One Dance" rapper and singer had argued he had no role in the planning that went into the festival at Houston's NRG Park.
On Wednesday, Judge Kristen Hawkins dropped Drake from a blockbuster lawsuit filed by the victims.
The judge declined requests for dismissal from Apple Inc., which live-streamed the concert, and entities connected to Scott.
Drake appeared on stage at the end of the concert as a surprise guest. During a deposition in November, he said he had no idea that anything was wrong when he began performing and could not see the crowd distinctly from the stage.
Unconscious fans were being lifted out of the crowd even before Scott went on stage roughly an hour before.
The show continued for 40 minutes after police declared a "mass casualty event." 10 people died from compression asphyxia, with the youngest victim being 9 years old, and hundreds were injured.
Families of the victims have sued Scott, Drake, promoter Live Nation, and others for failing to stop the show sooner. The claims are combined into a single $2 billion lawsuit.
In his push to get out of the case, Scott's lawyers argued he had no responsibility to keep the crowd safe.
A grand jury declined to press charges against Scott in June. Houston Police released a report a month later, which included interviews with Scott, Drake and others involved with the show.
Drake told police that he was distracted by a knee injury and the stage lighting. A security executive who worked with Scott said he had never seen concerts as rowdy as Scott's, and that the rapper urged his fans to "rage."
Police also learned that Scott had been told before Drake came on stage that people had died, and the show needed to end quickly. But Scott tells a different story.
“Normally if it was something drastic,” Scott told the police, “someone would have to come hit the button or pull the plug.”
The families of four of the people killed have settled their cases.
