When rapper DaBaby performed at Rolling Loud festival in Miami last Sunday, he invited the crowd to “put your cell phone light up,” except for people who have HIV or gay men who had sex in car parks.
DaBaby’s comments haven’t gone unnoticed – the rapper received plenty of backlash from people on Twitter.
Dababy should've been canceled when he physically hit a black woman but I guess I'm kinda glad everyone's realizing Dababy's no good pic.twitter.com/Y8XIhkAsgt
— #eyesonrafah 𓂆✡︎🪶🖤💛❤🇵🇸🍉 (@dotcombaby947) July 28, 2021
https://twitter.com/TuralMentes/status/1420270525432094721?s=20
@DaBabyDaBaby What was the Reason???? Do you kno how many Gays truly BUY and stream your Music &do you the amount of people who are living with HIV/AIDS that you attacked for nothing ?
Then The Gays break they necks to be at events like that to be completely disrespected‼️
— Ts Madison (@TsMadisonatl1) July 26, 2021
I hope that this is the beginning of the end of Dababy’s career. pic.twitter.com/ke9bQub8R1
— fan account (@knnewagb) July 28, 2021
https://twitter.com/Christian_Zamo/status/1420510883210428419?s=20
British singer Dua Lipa, with whom the rapper had a collab for a remix of her song “Levitate”, has also expressed her thoughts on the rapper’s controversial remarks. She wrote: “I’m surprised and horrified at DaBaby’s comments. I really don’t recognise this as the person I worked with. I know my fans know whre my heart lies and that I stand 100% with the LGBTQ community. We need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/AIDS.”
Some Dua Lipa stans have also spoken up to encourage others to listen to Dua Lipa’s original “Levitate” instead of the remix featuring DaBaby.
I liked levitating by Dua lipa more than Levitating feat DaBaby for a reason pic.twitter.com/qjKwuFN8ws
— kanishk Arora (@Kanishxarora) July 28, 2021
Levitating by Levitating feat.
Dua Lipa DaBaby pic.twitter.com/6JFSRxVmxF— N • (@NlC0ROBIN) July 27, 2021
https://twitter.com/QuentinOutsold/status/1420102629057781760?s=20
Matt Bernstein (@mattxiv) also chimed in on Twitter, suggesting that dua lipa should re-record the “Levitate” remix but this time featuring Lil Nas X instead of DaBaby.
can we get dua lipa to re-record the levitating remix with @lilnasx instead bc dababy is a homophobe
— matt (@mattxiv) July 26, 2021
Aside from DaBaby’s homophobic comment, he also made the false claim that HIV “will make you die in two or three weeks.” In response, Demi Lovato and Elton John have both spoken up on social media to share facts about HIV.
Lovato reposted an Instagram post by Bernstein saying “HIV is not a ‘gay disease’” along with some facts about the STD. “’hot people listen to the original version of levitating,’” Lovato wrote in the caption, which was quoted from one of Bernstein’s tweets.
Meanwhile, Elton John also pitched in to share more facts about HIV. John wrote: “HIV misinformation and homophobia have no place in the music industry. We must break down the stigma around HIV and not spread it. As musicians, it’s our job to bring people together.”
(1/5) We've been shocked to read about the HIV misinformation and homophobic statements made at a recent DaBaby show. This fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic.
The facts are: pic.twitter.com/MqCv3vWiz2
— Elton John (@eltonofficial) July 28, 2021
DaBaby responded to the backlash in an Instagram story, saying that what he does at his shows “does not concern” people online, and “What I do at the live show is for the audience at the live show. It’ll never translate to somebody looking at a five, six-second clip.”
The 29-year-old rapper later on posted an apology on Twitter. “Anybody who done ever been affected by AIDS/HIV y’all got the right to be upset, what I said was insensitive even though I have no intentions on offending anybody. So my apologies. But the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. Y’all business is y’all business,” he wrote.
Anybody who done ever been effected by AIDS/HIV y’all got the right to be upset, what I said was insensitive even though I have no intentions on offending anybody. So my apologies 🙏🏾
But the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. y’all business is y’all business.
— DaBaby (@DaBabyDaBaby) July 27, 2021
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