Mark Moschell via Creative Commons.
The annual four-day Chicago music festival, Lollapalooza, had a massive turnout of “more than 385,000” attendees, according to Block Club Chicago. The festival took place this year from July 29 to Aug. 1 and had amazing performances from popular artists such as Miley Cyrus, Tyler, The Creator, Journey, Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion, the Foo Fighters and more.
However, missing in action at the massive music celebration was 29-year-old American rapper, DaBaby, whose real name is Jonathan Lyndale Kirk.
This year, at Miami music festival Rolling Loud, DaBaby shared a few harsh words about HIV/AIDS and the LGBTQ+ community that fans did not take lightly.
“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 light up,” DaBaby stated on stage, before proceeding to have men who “didn’t” perform oral sex on other men “in the parking lot” to put their flashlights up too.
DaBaby immediately got slammed for his “slut-shaming” and encouragement of the stigma that “HIV/AIDS is something people should be still discriminated against for having” according to MSNBC.
When DaBaby came out with his apology video the next day on Instagram, it seemed to only dig him into a deeper hole.
The rapper explained it was only a “call to action” and continued to rant saying “even my gay fans … they don’t got AIDS. They take care of themselves.”
No one was accepting DaBaby’s apology anytime soon, though. On Sunday, Aug. 1, Lollapalooza explained in a tweet that their festival was “founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect, and love” and because of that, DaBaby would “no longer be performing at Grant Park” that evening.
Lollapalooza removing the rapper from their lineup started a plunging domino effect for DaBaby’s future performances.
Only a day later, the Govenor’s Ball Music Festival explained in a tweet “Founders Entertainment does not and will not tolerate hate or discrimination of any kind.” The festival is set to happen Sept. 24-26 in New York City and DaBaby will no longer be one of the performers in this three-day event.
Back in March, DaBaby was on the top of the lineup for the UK music festival Parklife, set to happen on Sept. 11-12. However, recently DaBaby’s name seems to have “quietly vanished” on the new Parklife poster after the news of his homphobic comments spread through social media, according to Rolling Stone.
On Aug. 2, DaBaby posted a more formal apology to his Instagram.
“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,” DaBaby explains in the apology.
DaBaby continues by saying he wants to “apologize to the LGBTQ+ community for the hurtful and triggering comments” he made, before ending the announcement by saying “Love to all. God bless.”
DaBaby’s exclusion from the Lollapalooza festival was a major landmark for his career and may set a precedent for other music festivals, like the Governor’s Ball and Parklife, to exclude him from their performance lineups.
Even with his apology, the rage from the rapper’s fans seems like it won’t be fading anytime soon, and his mistakes are still trending on most social media platforms.
Jaedyn Young can be reached at jaedynyoung@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @xox_jaedyn.
