DaBaby's Rolling Loud Miami homophobic comments — and the industry response

Why it matters

July 25, 2021. DaBaby (Jonathan Kirk) was performing at Rolling Loud Miami when he addressed the crowd between songs with a sequence of remarks that included: "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 lighter up." The remarks went on to include further homophobic content. The industry response was immediate and unusually consequential. Lollapalooza dropped him from its headlining slot within days. Multiple other festivals followed. Dua Lipa, Madonna, Elton John, and Demi Lovato publicly condemned the comments. Several song collaborators removed his verses from official releases. The episode was the most significant cancellation arc in commercial hip-hop of the streaming era and represented a meaningful shift in the genre's institutional response to anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. DaBaby's commercial trajectory has not, since 2021, fully recovered. The episode is one of the few examples of a major rap-industry response to an anti-LGBTQ public episode actually changing the artist's commercial standing. You can argue it took the industry too long to ever do this. You would be correct.