Lollapalooza has dropped DaBaby from its Sunday lineup after the rapper has come under fire for homophobic remarks he made during his set at another music festival last weekend.
Lollapalooza’s official Twitter account posted Sunday morning that the festival, celebrating its 30th anniversary with this year’s edition this weekend in Chicago, “was founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect and love. With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight.”
As part of the change, the festival said Young Thug would perform at 9 p.m. on the Bud Light Seltzer Stage, and G Herbo will perform at 4 p.m. on the T-Mobile Stage.
At the Rolling Loud festival in Miami on Sunday, July 25, DaBaby asked fans to shine their cellphone flashlights if they “didn’t show up today with HIV/AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that will make you die in two to three weeks.”
The rapper, known for his hit “Rockstar” and being featured on a remix of Dua Lipa’s “Levitating,” went on to make more crude comments about women and gay men.
DaBaby addressed his remarks Monday on Instagram Live, claiming gay and straight fans enjoyed his performance.
“I wasn’t going on a rant. That’s called a call to action. That’s what that’s called, cause I’m a live performer,” he added. “I’m the best live performer.”
He went on to say his gay fans don’t have HIV/AIDS” because they’re not “nasty” or “junkies.” “They got class,” he said.
He apologized on Twitter on Tuesday, writing, “Anybody who done ever been affected 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. But the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. y’all business is y’all business.”
Still DaBaby’s continued to face criticism for his comments from a number of prominent musicians including Elton John, Madonna and Questlove.
John tweeted on Wednesday that he was “shocked” to hear about DaBaby’s remarks, saying such comments lead to “stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic.” The longtime HIV/AIDS activist said musicians should bring people together.
For her part, Dua Lipa, who’s faced calls to remove the rapper from the “Levitating” remix, said on Instagram on Monday that she’s “surprised and horrified” at his comments.
“I really don’t recognize this as the person I worked with,” she added. “I know my fans know where my heart lies and that I stand 100 percent with the LGTBQ community. We need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/AIDS.”
Lollapalooza is expected to wrap up Sunday after kicking off Thursday in Chicago’s Grant Park. Before the festival began, amid concerns about rising COVID-19 case numbers in the U.S. due to the more contagious delta variant, organizers said attendees would have to show proof that they had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested negative for the disease within the last three days. Anyone who isn’t vaccinated is required to wear a mask.
The event was expected to welcome roughly 100,000 daily attendees, the Associated Press reported, and will be Chicago’s largest gathering since the pandemic began and one of the largest gatherings in the country since March 2020.
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