Lollapalooza Drops DaBaby from Lineup Following Homophobic Comments

The final day of Lollapalooza in Chicago is in its final hours, and festival organisers have announced that DaBaby has been dropped from the event – the rapper was supposed to perform tonight.

“Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect, and love,” the festival tweeted earlier today. “With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight.” See the full tweet below.

The rapper’s removal from the lineup comes a week after he made homophobic comments while performing at Rolling Loud Miami. “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,” he told the audience during his set. “Fellas, if you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone light up!”

DaBaby’s comments were met with criticism from many, including Elton John, who tweeted that his remarks “[fuel] stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic.”

Dua Lipa, who collaborated with DaBaby on a remix of her Future Nostalgia cut ‘Levitating’ last year, said she was “surprised and horrified” at the rapper’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% with the LGBTQ community. We need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/AIDS.”

Last week, DaBaby appeared to reference the controversy with a self-directed video for his new single ‘Giving What It’s Supposed to Give’. At one point in the clip, he holds up a sign that says “AIDS”. At the end of the video, in rainbow lettering, is the message “Don’t Fight Hate with Hate”. It concludes: “My apologies for being me, the same way you want the freedom to be you.”