Rolling Loud Festival: Why is everyone cancelling DaBaby after his concert?

Rolling Loud went off in Miami last week as one of the biggest live music events in the U.S. since the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was announced back in March 2020. Fans were curious if the first major music festival would go off without a hitch following over a year of on & off lockdown. Now, the festie has passed and people are still talking about the piping hot tea spilled during the event.

Plenty of stories followed the Rolling Loud Festival, from a headline about a missing woman to another about a performer contracting COVID-19 days after the event. However, one story is heating up more than others. Everyone is talking about DaBaby again after he made some controversial remarks during his Rolling Loud performance. So what went down at the rapper’s concert? Here’s what we found.

Remarks

The Independent reported this week that DaBaby performed a concert this past Sunday July 25th to help close out the Rolling Loud Festival in Miami. Reports say when the rapper took the stage, he went on to make some homophobic comments and negative remarks about those living with HIV & AIDS.

The rapper is quoted saying, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two, three weeks, then put your cell phone light up . . . Fellas, if you ain’t sucking d*** in the parking lot, put your cell phone lighter up”.

Well, there’s quite a lot to say about DaBaby’s comments on stage. Some of the comments make us ask what year it is, and others make us wonder what made DaBaby so pumped to share his opinions on a Miami stage. Regardless, DaBaby certainly got a response from both his fans and his peers, and they weren’t exactly smashing the proverbial like button on his remarks.

Response

Reports say The Terence Higgins Trust, an HIV prevention & awareness charity, spoke to Pink News calling the rapper’s remarks misinformation. 

The charity pointed out how people can live long healthy lives with the medical advancements made to treat HIV and how comments like DaBaby’s perpetuate HIV stigma. However, the charity wasn’t the only voice to respond to DaBaby’s strange speech.

Page Six reported this week that on Tuesday, Dua Lipa made a public statement regarding DaBaby’s comments. The two worked together on Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” remix. Dua Lipa took to her Instagram stories to respond to DaBaby’s comments. 

Dua Lipa is quoted saying, “I’m surprised and horrified at DaBaby’s comments. 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”.

However, neither Dua Lipa nor HIV awareness charities were enough to make DaBaby backdown about his concert banter.

Doubling down

Reports say DaBaby took to Instagram live to defend his remarks, saying straight & gay fans enjoyed his concert at Rolling Loud, quoted commenting “I wasn’t going on a rant. That’s called a call to action. That’s what that’s called, ’cause I’m a live performer . . . I’m the best live performer”.

DaBaby seems to have doubled down on his comments. The response isn’t terribly surprising considering his reaction to earlier controversies. BBC reported back in March 2020 of DaBaby hitting a female fan after her phone’s flash was too close to his face. However, for now DaBaby would appear to have avoided the cancellation club. We’ll have to keep our eyes peeled to see what he does next.

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Who was your favorite performer from the Rolling Loud Festival? Drop you number one in the comments below!