Rapper DaBaby has finally issued an apology for making ‘homophobic’ remarks against gay men and Aids during his performance at the weekend’s Rolling Loud event.
The performer was on stage at the Miami event when he went on a vile rant, telling men who aren’t ‘sucking d**k in the parking lot’ to put their phone torches on, while also reaching out to those who ‘didn’t show up’ with a sexually transmitted infection.
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After widespread outrage and condemnation, with collaborator Dua Lipa, who worked with DaBaby on a remix to her hit Levitating, releasing a statement, the rapper has now shared an apology of sorts after earlier seemingly doubling down on his message in a series of Instagram stories.
In a statement shared to Twitter, DaBaby – real name Jonathan Lyndale Kirk – 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. [sic]’
Suggesting his comments were ‘digested’ wrong, he added: ‘I tell fans to put a cellphone light in the air y’all start a million man March.
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.
‘I told you y’all digested that wrong ????????♂️but I ain’t gone lie I’m impressed.
‘Now show this same amount of support when a racist cop kill one of our black ass…YA NOT ????’
The rapper had earlier defended his comments, which were captured on video and circulated online, saying his onstage messages ‘never translate correctly to somebody looking at a little five, six-second clip from their goddamn crib on their phone. It just don’t work like that’.
However, in further messages, per TMZ, he said his gay fans ‘don’t got f**king Aids’ because they ‘take care’ of themselves and aren’t ‘nasty’ or ‘junkies’, adding: ‘They got class.’
In response, Demi Lovato shared a series of slides to their Instagram slamming DaBaby’s message, along with an image that said: ‘HIV is not a gay disease.’
The star re-shared another message that mused ‘hot people listen to the original version of Levitating’, in reference to Dua’s hit, and dropped facts to dismiss the ‘trope that queer men are promiscuous, dirty and disease-ridden’.
The slides went on to share statistics around HIV infections, noting anyone can contract the virus, regardless of gender, sexuality or race, with heterosexual people making up 23% of diagnoses in the US in 2019.
On one card Demi posted, it read: ‘Spreading fear and stigma around a (completely manageable) virus creates shame and prevents people from getting tested, which puts people at even more risk.’
The star added that queer history needed to be taught in school to crush the stigma around HIV/Aids, adding: ‘But we aren’t going to be able to as long as straight people think it has nothing to do with them.’
DaBaby’s comments caused irate social media users to furiously condemn the rapper, with many pointing out his comments on HIV and Aids do not reflect the facts.
While there’s currently no cure for HIV, with an early diagnosis and effective treatments, most people with HIV will not develop any Aids-related illnesses and will live a near-normal lifespan.
Dua reacted to his comments by saying she was ‘surprised and horrified’, adding she ‘doesn’t recognise this as the person she worked with’ last year.
In a statement on Instagram 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 where my heart lies and that I stand 100% with the LGBTQ community.
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‘We need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/Aids.’
Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images