Today (August 1st) on the last day of Lollapalooza 2021, the festival announced that DaBaby will no longer perform at the event. “Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusiveness, respect and love,” tweeted the festival today. “With this in mind, DaBaby will no longer perform in Grant Park this evening. Young Thug will now be performing on the Bud Light Seltzer Stage at 9:00 pm and G Herbo will be performing on the T-Mobile Stage at 4:00 pm. ”The full tweet can be found below.
DaBaby’s removal from the event comes shortly after the rapper made homophobic comments at Rolling Loud Miami last weekend. “If you haven’t shown up today with HIV, AIDS, or one of those deadly sexually transmitted diseases that will kill you in two to three weeks, turn on your cell phone,” he said. “Guys, if you’re not sucking cock in the parking lot, light up your cell phone!”
Numerous artists commented afterwards, including Dua Lipa, who worked with DaBaby on her remix of the Future Nostalgia song “Levitating”. “I’m surprised and appalled by DaBaby’s comments,” she wrote on an Instagram story (seen by Pitchfork). “I really don’t acknowledge this as the person I’ve worked with. I know that my fans know where my heart is and that I am 100% with the LGBTQ community. We have to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance surrounding HIV / AIDS. ”Elton John also spoke on the subject and said the rapper spreads“ HIV suspicion ”. “This fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic,” he tweeted. Additionally, Demi Lovato and Madonna both shared Instagram posts denouncing DaBaby’s comments
On Wednesday (July 28th) DaBaby released a new single and video entitled “Giving What It’s Supposed to Give”. The self-made clip apparently made two references to his Rolling Loud remarks. At one point in the video, the rapper holds up a sign that reads “AIDS”. The picture ends with a message in rainbow script: “Don’t fight hate with hate”. It continues: “I apologize that I am who you want the freedom to be you.”
Pitchfork asked DaBaby and Lollapalooza representatives for further comments.
