Posted by DaBaby was public enemy number one last July after he made several comments perceived to be homophobic and sexist during his Rolling Loud Miami performance. As he was cut from festival after festival, DaBaby apologized for his remarks in an Instagram statement but then deleted it. Months later, the Billboard chart-topping rapper revisited the controversy with The Breakfast Club and insisted he was simply misunderstood.
“I didn’t mean what you think I meant,” he says in the clip. “What you want me to do? Go look myself in the mirror and say, ‘You don’t like gay people?’ Nah. I’m not trippin’ on gay people at all. If I said what I said to get people to raise they cell phones and it was misinterpreted by people who watch a five-second clip at home. You not supposed to understand what’s going on. You could raise your cell phone if you wanted to. You ain’t supposed to be able to digest a clip that’s been altered and shortened with a narrative to go along with it, with enough people driving it, it gonna do what it do.”
He added, “When I tell you that, “OK cool, let’s move forward knowing that wasn’t my intention.’ Hey look, if I ain’t murdered a man, I don’t care who said, ‘You killed him, you killed him, you killed him.’ I did not kill the man. They want me to plead guilty to what they’re saying. There’s gay people in my family. What I look like?”
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DaBaby’s original comments came as he was attempting to get the crowd riled up. With cellphone cameras rolling, he proceeded to say, “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.
“Ladies, if your pussy smell like water, put your cellphone light in the air. Fellas, if you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up.”
The backlash was swift, and DaBaby soon addressed the chatter in an Instagram video that only seemed to make the situation worse.
“I wasn’t going on no rant — that’s called a call-to-action,” he says. “That’s what that’s called because I’m a live performer. I’m the best live performer … you interact with your fans, you get what I’m sayin? Look. All the lights went up — gay or straight. You wanna know why? ‘Cause even my gay fans don’t have fuckin’ AIDS, stupid ass n-ggas.”
He continued, “They don’t got AIDS. My gay fans, they take care of they selves. They ain’t going for that. They ain’t no nasty gay n-ggas. They ain’t no junkies on the street … my gay fans, they ain’t goin’ for that. They got class, n-gga. They ain’t suckin’ no dick in no parking lot, n-gga.
“You gotta get a room, n-gga. A good one. A five-star hotel. You gotta wait ’til they go to the crib … Even my gay fans got standards. Y’all trippin’. You bringin’ negative attention and energy upon y’all selves. And the ones that doin’ it is people who didn’t even attend the show.”
DaBaby Attempts To Defend ‘Homophobic Rant’ At Rolling Loud
The 30-year-old artist then issued his second since-deleted apology, saying, “Social Media moves so fast that people want to demolish you before you even have the opportunity to grow, educate, and learn from your mistakes. As a man who has had to make his own way from very difficult circumstances, having people I know publicly working against me — knowing that what I needed was education on these topics and guidance — has been challenging.
“I appreciate the many people who came to me with kindness, who reached out to me privately to offer wisdom, education, and resources. That’s what I needed and it was received. I want to apologize to the LGBTQ+ community for the hurtful and triggering comments I made. Again, I apologize for my misinformed comments about HIV/AIDS and I knew education on this is important. Love to all. God bless.”