DaBaby has had a busy five weeks in the pop culture news cycle since his July 25th appearance at Miami's Rolling Loud music festival, and not in a good way. For those of you who take good care of your mental health and stay far away from the sticky web of the internet, DaBaby went on an incredibly bizarre homophobic rant at the festival, and was promptly cancelled. The artist, who had previously coined himself one of the "best rappers alive," faced extreme backlash from fans, fellow celebrities and a slew of concert cancellations including getting kicked off of the Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and Governor's Ball festivals. Now we're faced with the uncomfortable question yet again that a growing group of celebrities have forced us to ask: what does it take to come back from major transgressions in the public eye?
DaBaby has taken us on a rollercoaster ride of emotion in creating his own answer to that storied question. The day after his disparaging comments on stage went viral, he took to his Instagram stories to dig in, suggesting, among other things, that his queer fans don't have HIV because they're not "nasty" and aren't "junkies." Not only is it a horrific, and wrong argument to make, it's a strange hill to want to die on for DaBaby. It has long been established that people living with HIV can live fulfilled, healthy lives with treatment, and the mission of many HIV/AIDS organizations is trying to make these treatments available to marginalized communities and educate the public on ways to prevent the spread of the virus. Considering that information, and just how horrifically the AIDS epidemic was propelled by homophobia, why in 2021 would DaBaby chose to disparage those living with HIV/AIDS?
