Following a hate-filled rant he made while performing at the Rolling Loud music festival in Miami, organizers of the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago decided rapper DaBaby was no longer welcome on their stage.
Ben Kesslen of NBC News has reported that “the Lollapalooza music festival canceled DaBaby’s Sunday night performance in response to the rapper’s recent homophobic remarks.”
In a statement released on Sunday, Aug. 1, organizers of the event said DaBaby’s recent remarks from the previous weekend were not in alignment with the message or spirit of Lollapalooza, so they removed him from the lineup for the festival’s final day.
The statement said, in part, “Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect and love. With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight.”
According to Kesslen, DaBaby recently brought on scorn from both the public and all corners of the entertainment world for ignorant, sexist and homophobic comments he made during his performance.
“He asked members of the audience to shine their cellphone flashlights if they ‘didn’t show up today with HIV/AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that will make you die in two to three weeks,’” Kesslen reported. “He then made other crude comments about gay men and women, according to a now-viral video.”
DaBaby has since tried to partially apologize for his comments, claiming he had “no intentions on offending anybody.”
He later backtracked on those sentiments, however, by going on to say, “what I do at a live show, it’s for the audience at the live show. It will never translate correctly to somebody looking at a little 5-6 second clip from they [expletive] crib on their phone. It just don’t work like that.”
“Many celebrities and musicians condemned his remarks,” Kesslen reported. “Elton John said he was ‘shocked to read about the HIV misinformation and homophobic statements made at a recent DaBaby show’” and recent collaborator Dua Lipa said she was “horrified” upon hearing what the rapper said.
In addition to his own hit song “Rockstar” and “Cash S***,” his collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion, DaBaby is perhaps best known for his guest feature on Lipa’s smash hit “Levitating.” Following the backlash, some radio stations have started playing the original version of the song without DaBaby’s verse, while countless fans have urged Lipa and her record label to remove the remix featuring the rapper from streaming services.
DaBaby and his reps have so far not responded to his ban from the Lollapalooza stage, but the Lollapalooza isn’t the only festival DaBaby has to worry about. On Aug. 2, organizers for the Governor’s Ball music festival in New York City also announced they were dropping DaBaby from their lineup in September, saying they “will not tolerate hate or discrimination of any kind.”
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