By Moya Zhao

After many homophobic and sexist comments where stated by Dababy and a week of intense criticism, Lollapalooza announced that DaBaby will be removed from his planned performance at the music festival.

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

The cancellation happened only 12 hours before his performance and Young Thug replaced DaBaby’s slot. DaBaby’s manager didn’t immediately reply with the attempts to reach Lollapalooza ultimately being unsuccessful.

This eventual decision was made after Jonathan Kirk, DaBaby’s real name, said homophobic and sexit remarks towards the LGBTQ community as well as people with HIV/AIDS during his set. Kirk is a rapper who rose to prominence considerably quickly with multiple collaborations with Justin Bieber, six Grammy nominations and chart topping singles. At the festival DaBaby inaccurately stated that HIV/AIDS cause death in two to three weeks, offending many of the individuals in the community.

DaBaby also made jokes about female rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s assault on his twitter, after she publicly spoke about her disappointment with men, stating “support me in private and publicly do something different.”

This caused criticism from fans and celebrities alike, with the rapper defending himself on an instagram live, though he also made more Homophobic statements, saying that the HIV/AIDS community had “the right to be upset” and “the LGBTQ community…y’all’s buiseness is y’all’s business.

Many artists of color have also condemned his actions, including DaShawn Usher and Dua Lipa, both of whom had collaborations with DaBaby prior to this controversy.

Elton John, an open member of the LGBTQ community and advocater for the HIV/AIDS epidemic, has also spoken up about this stating “Homophobic and HV mistruths have no place in our society and industry as musicians, we must spread compassion and love for the most marginalized people in our communities”

Madonna, another long-time supporter of the LGBTQ community has also debunked many of the false statements DaBaby made in many tweets with Questlove speaking up as well.

After the cancellation of DaBaby’s performances in Lolopalooza’s festivals, there have been even more cancellations for festivals in Manchester, England and the criticism has continued to be targeted towards Kirk.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/arts/music/dababy-lollapalooza-canceled-homophobic-comments.html

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-qYMp1MqEp72GYdfYxcjFpgyh_Oaeghv