Hours before rapper DaBaby was set to headline the Lollapalooza Music Festival on Sunday night, organizers pulled him from the event’s line-up over his recent homophobic statements.
The Grammy-nominated rapper, known for hits like “Rockstar” and a remix of Dua Lipa’s “Levitating,” has faced major backlash since making homophobic and misogynistic remarks — specifically harmful and inaccurate comments about people living with HIV/AIDS — at the Rolling Loud festival in Miami last weekend.
In the days since, his onstage rant has been widely condemned by music industry titans, including Elton John, Madonna and Questlove, while the fashion company BoohooMAN announced it would be cutting ties with the rapper.
Now, Chicago’s largest music festival is parting ways with DaBaby ahead of his scheduled performance in Grant Park.
“Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect, and love,” the festival said in a statement posted on Twitter Sunday afternoon. “With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight.”
The music festival’s organizers said that Young Thug, who was previously scheduled to perform on Sunday afternoon, will take over the rapper’s prime 9 p.m. slot.
DaBaby did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
During his set at Rolling Loud last week, the rapper told the crowd, “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 lighter up! Fellas, if you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up!”
After initially doubling down on his comments, he later issued a formal (albeit half-hearted) apology on social media.
“Anybody who done ever been effected by AIDS/HIV y’all got the right to be upset, what I said was insensitive even though I have no intentions on offending anybody. So my apologies,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “But the LGBT community... I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. y’all business is y’all business.”
The statement did little to absolve DaBaby, with GLAAD blasting his rhetoric as “inaccurate, hurtful, and harmful to the LGBTQ community.”
Elton John, who is openly gay and a longtime advocate for those living with HIV, issued a statement in response to the rapper’s comments, writing that he was “shocked” to read about the controversy, as it “fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic.”
Madonna described DaBaby’s views as “hateful” and encouraged him to “know your facts,” before spreading misinformation.
“AIDs is not transmitted by standing next to someone in a crowd,” she wrote on Instagram. “I want to put my cellphone lighter up and pray for your ignorance, No one dies of AIDS in 2 or 3 weeks anymore. Thank God.”
The 2021 Lollapalooza festival, which is one of the first major festivals to return in full force since the start of the pandemic, will conclude on Sunday with headlining performances by the Foo Fighters, Modest Mouse and Brockhampton.
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