In the aftermath of his Rolling Loud controversy, Da Baby’s artist credit was removed from Dua Lipa’s “Levitating Remix”. Jonathan Kirk, who’s professionally known as Da Baby, has labeled himself as the “Live Show Killa.” He certainly followed up to his name when he made insults on stage at the 2021 Rolling Loud festival in Miami. During the performance, he brought out the controversial Tory Lanez on stage, as if that was not bad enough, he went on to make unorthodox offensive comments about queer people and those living with HIV and AIDS.
“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 cell phone light in the air,” he said. “Ladies, if your pussy smells like water, put a cell phone light in the air. Fellas, if you ain’t suck a n-gga dick in the parking lot, put your cell phone lights in the air. Keep it f*king real.” he ranted.
Initially, the scrutiny was towards the fact that Da Baby brought out the controversial Tory Lanez. Tory is on the wrong side of the law after Megan Thee Stallion reported that he shot her. However, as days went on, the focus was on his homophobia. Da Baby was unapologetic at first and 3 days post rant, The rapper released a distasteful music video titled “Giving What It’s Supposed To Give”. The lyrics reference AIDS and oral sex. He captioned the Twitter post: “It never ceases to amaze me the way God puts me in situations I’m already equipped to handle. Enjoy. (with a sleepy and popcorn emoji).
Da Baby later went on Twitter offering the traditional celebrity apology via a string of tweets:
“Anybody who done ever been effected [sic] 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, though not without a cryptic follow-up. “But the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. Y’all business is y’all business.”
Shortly after that, Dua Lipa distanced herself from the rapper. The British pop-star also released a public statement saying that she was horrified and surprised by his comments.
“I’m surprised and horrified at DaBaby’s comments, I really don’t recognize this as the person I worked with. I know my fans know where my heart lies and that I stand 100 percent with the LGBTQ community. We need to come together to find the stigma and ignorance around HIV/AIDS.”
Dua Lipa -July 2021
If you know anything about the music scene, then you will know you can’t mess with Dua Lipa and her fans. Her streams are always through the roof and this obviously means numbers or not for Da Baby. Even after losing out on the premiere charting position and radio spins, he allegedly still received a hefty bag for his verse. DaBaby was paid about $350,000 for his guest feature on Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia 2020 anthem. This is according to Billion Dollar Baby Entertainment (Da Baby’s record label) signee Stunna4Vegas.
“I don’t want to put his business out there but I think he got paid like $350,000 for that verse and got took off? She damn near canceled herself.” – he told VladTV.
“Levitating” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is currently 4x-platinum. The remix video boasts over 569 million views on YouTube.
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