Travis Scott brought this mess upon himself when he took to his Instagram Stories to vehemently deny rumours he’d cheated on his long-time girlfriend, billionaire Kylie Jenner.
The rumours around his alleged rendezvous with model Rojean Kar, popularly known by her Instagram handle Yungsweetro, were circumstantial at best.
Kar had merely posted a picture of herself on the set of a music video in which Scott had appeared and captioned it: “I’m directing obvi”.
Despite their rumoured history, which has never been proved, her post was innocuous enough that it would have surely quickly blown over, at least publicly. Instead, Scott let loose on his Instagram Stories and went so far as to claim he didn’t even know her.
Uh,oh – bad idea.
First of all, Kar had already dismissed the rumours by insisting there was nothing sinister about her being on set at the shoot, so the earlier post was unnecessary.
But following Scott’s jab that he didn't even know her, Kar fired back and claimed they’d been together on several occasions, before labelling Scott a serial cheater.
In the week since, several social media users have shared evidence (albeit circumstantial) that the two do not just know each other, but in fact have a long history together.
One user, @devotedly.yours, shared a post that went viral in which she pinpointed several occasions over the past decade that showed them together. All of this has led many to conclude that, at the very least, Scott and Kar know each other.
All this hoo-ha has led many to question why in the world Scott would cheat on Jenner, a wealthy young woman who is the object of many a man’s desires.
This comes just weeks after social media was up in arms when it emerged that American-Nigerian basketball coach Ime Udoka had been unfaithful to his wife, the gorgeous Nia Long.
In the light of this, one Twitter user remarked online: “Being beautiful, rich does not exempt you”, before firing off a list of beautiful and rich women who have been cheated on, most of them by hip hop or sports stars.
Back in 2014, the world was stunned when surveillance footage emerged of Solange wildly punching and kicking Jay-Z in an elevator as Beyoncé looked on.
While no official explanation was ever given for this, it emerged shortly afterwards that Jay-Z had been unfaithful. Yes, he cheated on Beyoncé!
Even typing this out all these years later feels surreal. For two decades, Beyoncé has been lauded as one of the most desirable women on earth.
She’s rich, she’s famous, she’s drop-dead gorgeous, and she seems to have a lovely personality. Reigniting memories of this scandal, last year a leaked video showed rappers Quavo and Saweetie, who had broken up a short while before the video saw the light of day, fighting in an elevator.
While the reason for their fight has never been revealed, a few months later Saweetie seemed to suggest Quavo had cheated on her after she tweeted: “I’ve endured too much betrayal and hurt behind the scenes.”
Quavo responded a short while later: “I had love for you and disappointed you did all that. You are not the woman I thought you were.”
His response led fans to speculate whether he was also suggesting that she had cheated on him.
A few weeks ago, in a new song with Takeoff titled “Messy”, Quavo sent the rumour mill into overdrive when he seemed to confirm internet rumours that Saweetie had slept with rapper and estranged Migos group member Offset, who is also his cousin.
“I said: ‘Caresha, please’ cause she too messy”, he rapped in what some believe is a reference to Saweetie's recent appearance on the Caresha Please podcast.
"Bitch f***** my dawg behind my back, but I ain't stressin'. You wanted the gang, you shoulda just said it, we would have blessed it."
One Twitter user responded: “The rumours about Offset and Saweetie been going around all year and now Quavo calling Offset unloyal and saying Saweetie f***** his dawg behind his back basically confirms it. That’s so messy.”
In response to this, many have been glorifying Saweetie’s rumoured infidelity by quoting rapper Nicki Minaj’s popular revenge mantra from her single Boss A** B***: “Rule number one to be a boss a** b***, Never let a clown n**** try to play you.
If he play you, then rule number two, F*** his best friends then make 'em yes-men.“
Offset himself has previously admitted to cheating on his wife, Cardi B, whom he recently reconciled with.
A few months ago, men across the world were up in arms when rumours began to circulate that rapper A$AP Rocky had cheated on Rihanna. While those rumours turned out to be false, given the history of men cheating on their flawless partners, it didn’t seem far-fetched.
This is especially when you look at the trend of rappers cheating on their famous partners.
Not only are promiscuity and infidelity rife in the culture, it’s also glorified. A$AP Rocky himself has a chart-topping single titled “F***** Problems” that says: “I love bad b*****, that’s my f***** problem. And yeah I like to f***, I got a f****** problem.”
With rap culture’s close ties with American sports, it’s also not surprising that this trend is unravelling in basketball and American football.
Former NBA star Tristan Thompson is one of the poster boys for infidelity, having infamously cheated on Khloé Kardashian on several occasions.
Drake, who’s largely steered clear of this kind of drama, summed it up neatly on 2013’s “Too Much”, when he said: “Most people in my position get complacent. Wanna come places with star girls, and they end up on them front pages.”
Happens every time.