DaBaby Condemned for Homophobic Comments Made at Rolling Loud Festival
On July 25, Sunday night, DaBaby made a homophobic speech to the audience at the Rolling Loud Festival in Miami. After the video of DaBaby’s speech surfaced online, multiple celebrities and a brand took to social media to condemn the rapper for his homophobic comments.
Sunday night, DaBaby told the audience at the Miami festival to “put your cell phone light up,” unless an audience member was a gay man or HIV positive. The rapper continued his homophobic and non-factual speech by stating that HIV, “make you die in two or three weeks.” According to BBC News, despite having the virus, individuals with HIV are able to live for decades.
Dua Lipa, who collaborated with the rapper recently, stated, “I really don’t recognize this as the person I worked with. I know my fans know where 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.”
(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.
— Elton John (@eltonofficial) July 28, 2021
The facts are: pic.twitter.com/MqCv3vWiz2
In addition to Dua Lipa’s words, many other celebrities took a stand against DaBaby’s hurtful speech. English singer Elton John created an entire Twitter thread dedicated to facts about HIV and the AIDS epidemic. The thread began with a statement that read, “We’ve been shocked to read about the HIV misinformation and homophobic statements made at a recent DaBaby show.”
Furthermore, American singer Demi Lovato posted a series of photos on Instagram about the incident including the caption, “hot people listen to the original version of levitating.” The caption references Dua Lipa’s song “Levitating,” which has an additional version featuring DaBaby.
After DaBaby’s homophobic comments spread across the internet, the brand BoohooMAN, which worked with the rapper, made its own statement. The brand explained that they “will no longer be working with” the rapper and that they “stand by and support the LGBTQ+ community.”
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 🙏🏾
— DaBaby (@DaBabyDaBaby) July 27, 2021
But the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. y’all business is y’all business.
DaBaby, at first, doubled down on his homophobic comments made at the Miami festival, but on Tuesday, the rapper changed his mind and tweeted that what he initially said to the audience was “insensitive.”
DaBaby’s ignorance really showed. It really showed.
— Rowe (@therowediaries) July 26, 2021
To learn more about HIV, basic information on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus is available on the official CDC website.
Writer | Find me on Twitter @Fontalvokayla
