Lollapalooza drops DaBaby, after the rapper came under fire for homophobic remarks.
In a move that shouldn’t surprise anybody, the iconic Chicago music festival has removed the Rockstar emcee from its schedule of performers.
Fellow rapper Young Thug will replace DaBaby’s “9pm [time slot] on the Bud Light Seltzer Stage”, while the windy city’s very own G Herbo will fill in Young Thug’s “4pm performance time on the T-Mobile stage”.
DaBaby watching Young Thug from outside of #Lollapalooza tonight: pic.twitter.com/PzclOb69Sl
— Bryn Rich (@brynrich) August 1, 2021
In a statement made on Twitter, Lollapalooza explained their decision for removing DaBaby.
“Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect, and love. With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight,” the festival tweeted with images showing the updated schedule.
All this comes after DaBaby made headlines for making shocking homophobic remarks during his performance at Rolling Loud in Miami last Sunday.
“If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cellphone lighter up,” the rapper declared into his microphone. “Fellas, if you ain’t sucking d*ck in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up!”
With so many people filming the performance on their phones, as well as it being livestreamed on YouTube, footage of the incident quickly flooded social media.
Many labelled the rapper as a homophobe, with prominent advocates for LGBT rights slamming him for perpetuating stereotypes.
“This fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to the AIDS epidemic,” legendary British singer Elton John tweeted.
Lollapalooza said DaBaby will not be one of DaPerformers 🤣🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/INdlkwkHnm
— Twilit Aries (@twilitaries) August 1, 2021
The Queen of Pop herself, Madonna, was also quick to condemn DaBaby.
“People like you are the reason we are still living in a world divided by fear. All Human beings should be treated with dignity and respect regardless of race, gender, sexual preference or religious beliefs. AMEN,” she wrote in a lengthy Instagram post.
Most notable of all, the rapper’s Levitating collaborator, singer Dua Lipa, also spoke out against him. “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 per cent with the LGBTQ community. We need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/AIDS,” Lipa said on Instagram.
While DaBaby has since apologised for his disgusting comments, as of now, he has not spoken about the festival’s decision to drop him.
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
