I don't post a whole lotta rap on this blog, although I do listen to it. But there was no way I could let this story concerning rap star DaBaby pass me by without speaking on it here. Because not only is this shit right here dumb, but it's a much needed discourse which needs to be had so that we can educate each other on a couple of things. HIV. And accountability.So, DaBaby was performing at the Rolling Loud festival. And for some reason, mid way through his set, he felt the need to say the following...
If you didn't show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that'll make you die in two or three weeks, put a cellphone light in the air. Ladies, if your pussy smell like water, put a cellphone light in the air. Fellas...fellas, if you ain't suck a n***a dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone lights in the air.
What type of person must you have to be to fix your mouth to say something like this?Let's get something real clear, real quick.
HIV is not guaranteed to kill you in 2 to 3 weeks. We are not in the 1970s or the 80s. But bitch, do we know what we AREin? A pandemic, where COVID will absolutely send you to from the crib to the mortuary in 3 weeks. And DaBaby was out here on a packed stage playing to a crowd of thousands of people in close proximity with no masks on, and I know not everybody there was fully vaccinated. DaBaby could have used this moment to be responsible and tell everybody to make sure they stay safe and get vaccinated. But nope. He wanted to be a whole fool and say ignorant, uneducated shit about HIV and AIDS.
Also, how is he going to have the audacity to stigmatise and shame gay men who suck dick in parking lots!? Like he and his crew ain't ever got their dick sucked by some groupie in a club toilet stall or some gas station where the tour bus be parked at. Also. Ain't nothing wrong with sucking a dick in a parking lot. Some people live for it. And some people literally make their living off of doing it. A massive part of the appeal of head is that it's pretty easy to do pretty much anywhere.
This attack from DaBaby seemed WAY too specific to a point where I can only assume a gay men hurt him. Maybe the person responsible for putting his rider together was gay and refused to suck his dick when he brought in DaBaby's bowl of Skittles with the yellows all picked out.
Gays be known for being in ERRRBODY's business. But bitch. Don't nobody involve themselves in gay business like a cis gendered straight man. Pride will be about to pull up, and the straights wanna know where the straight Pride at. Lil Nas X will buss it open on Satan, and the straights wanna know why the blasphemy. A rapper is here at a concert, and he wants to take time to say gay related foolishness.
Bye.
Just when DaBaby's PR team thought they already had enough of a mess on their hands, DaBaby responded to the backlash on Instagram, where he just threw his threw his clown wig wearing-ass head first into more ignorance. Claiming that his gays fans have class and don't have AIDS. Because by default, gays apparently don't have class. And not having class immediately makes you more likely to suck a dick in a parking lot and catch AIDS. This is life as a gay man according to DaBaby.
Chile. Somebody tell DaBaby to go watch Halston.
This whole narrative of only highly sexually active men contracting HIV needs to stop.
Let me just run some statistics by you real quick.
Based on statistics, there is a VERY high likelihood that there were people in that crowd who were HIV positive. And not just men. Because some of y'all dumb bitches really be thinking that HIV is a gay thing. Yes, the likelihood of contracting HIV is increased if you are a man having sex with other men. But it is by no means a gay exclusive thing. If we really wanna talk 'bout it, the largest demographic living with HIV are Black women.
Get this fool outta here.
The fact that DaBaby felt so emboldened to say what he said is a whole problem in and of itself, but it says more about the world that we live in more than it does DaBaby. DaBaby's wholly incorrect knowledge of HIV does not exist in a vacuum. Many people share his thoughts on HIV, which continually fuels the stigma around it - even within the queer community. If anything it's worse in the queer community, where somebody having HIV immediately has gays insinuate that they must fuck around a lot. With men refusing to date or have sex with somebody who is HIV out of fear of catching it, even though many men who are HIV positive and know it, are undetectable.
This is also part of the fallout of Trump's presidency, and one of the most dangerous things about it. A precedent has now clearly been set in terms of what people can get away with. We had a whole president cause insurrection and race riots get off scott free. Mere weeks go the US let a whole rapist let out of prison. DaBaby went on that stage saying what he said, knowing he could still walk away with his whole career still in one piece, with no repercussions - because he's seen men run AMOK and get away with murder like they Annalise.
People online are joking that Dua Lipa and Elton John are going to end his career. But how!? There is so little overlap between their fanbases, despite Elton John having collaborated with rappers and Duolingo having a song out with DaBaby. And as revered as Elton John is and as popular as Duolingo is, neither have the power to cancel DaBaby, and he knows it. Which is why he came out and dragged Dua after she responded to his Rolling Loud comment.
I'm so done with these Black men out here being misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic pieces of shit, and them still being able to keep their careers and have their dumb ass circle of Black men and women hold them down. I don't get how so many women can keep doing songs with Chris Brown after he assaulted Rihanna, and the colourist shit he stays saying. I don't get how y'all can keep streaming Tory Lanez music after he shot Megan Thee Stallion. And I know that y'all will stay streaming DaBaby's shit, even after all this. And that apology that he gave? Whack. Because I just find it hard to believe that he wrote it, let alone meant it.
Artists are not monoliths, but they also need to be held accountable for their decisions to work with certain artists and place a Billboard chart position over morals. It's cute that Duolingo put out a statement saying that she doesn't support DaBaby. But she still went and put him on a remix of a song ("Levitating" did not need any type of remix in the first fucking place) after the whole mess of him assaulting a woman. And Brazilian pop star Anitta who also collaborated with DaBaby is out here with her Twitter statement preaching ending the stigma of HIV, but she went and did a song with Cardi B and was out here doing that lil' "WAP" challenge on TikTok after she made an inflammatory comment about HIV in 2019. And we can't play the 'Maybe they didn't know' card, because both of these stories were big news of a magnitude where it's just not possible that not a single person in either Dua or Anitta's camps could have unaware. But they chose to prioritise chart success over morals. And they were both QUICK to come out with statements about DaBaby's comments, because they know they owe their popularity to the gays. It's hard not to be cynical when so much of what artists do in these situations is about saving face above all else, and trying to plaster over mistakes as opposed to learning from them. It's also very telling that both Anitta and Duolingo's statements spoke only of DaBaby's comments on HIV, but did not mention a single thing about the fact that he brought out Tory Lanez, who shot big ass Megan Thee Stallion.
I'm all for artists growing, learning and changing. But at which point does a seemingly honest mistake become a sign of ignorance and a refusal to care? And at what point does a true desire to want equality and understanding become performative advocacy?
Artists and fans alike will support an artist like DaBaby who makes comments such as this, that will have Black boys and Black men crawl so far into the back of that closet they gon' end up in Narnia. Yet they will buy a first class ticket on the 'Trash Lil Nas X Express' - all the while Lil Nas X is living in his light and being the actual positive representation that Black queer boys need over trash men like DaBaby, Death Note Ryok lookin' ass Boosie, Tory Lanez and T.I - who keep showing their ass and that they ain't shit, and three of them have kids. Boosie is out here paying grown women to throw their ass on a minor, and T.I was accompanying his daughter to her gynaecology appointments to make sure she's still a virgin. But sure. Black gays are the problem. Lawd help their children if they are / become queer were to contract HIV. Maybe they'd change and turn a corner when the shit hits closer to home, but the example they're setting for their children as of now is trash.
Folk need to do better. I need artists and the industry to really make good on accountability. Some of these artists are given far too big a platform to spew shit that is genuinely hateful and will have lasting effects. And fellow celebs, the media and the industry as a whole let far too much of this bullshit slide. Too many blind eyes are turned because nobody wants to close the door on a collab, exclusive coverage or a potential favour down the road - even for those who are showing who they are and that who they are is a piece of shit.
Shout outs to the person who threw a shoe at DaBaby. I hope they're having a blessed day.If Duolingo is really 'bout it, I'mma need her to pull the version of "Levitating" which features DaBaby off of streaming, and get the music video re-edited to the video for the album version of the song; which was always the superior version of the damn song in the first place.
HIV is not guaranteed to kill you in 2 to 3 weeks. We are not in the 1970s or the 80s. But bitch, do we know what we AREin? A pandemic, where COVID will absolutely send you to from the crib to the mortuary in 3 weeks. And DaBaby was out here on a packed stage playing to a crowd of thousands of people in close proximity with no masks on, and I know not everybody there was fully vaccinated. DaBaby could have used this moment to be responsible and tell everybody to make sure they stay safe and get vaccinated. But nope. He wanted to be a whole fool and say ignorant, uneducated shit about HIV and AIDS.
Also, how is he going to have the audacity to stigmatise and shame gay men who suck dick in parking lots!? Like he and his crew ain't ever got their dick sucked by some groupie in a club toilet stall or some gas station where the tour bus be parked at. Also. Ain't nothing wrong with sucking a dick in a parking lot. Some people live for it. And some people literally make their living off of doing it. A massive part of the appeal of head is that it's pretty easy to do pretty much anywhere.
This attack from DaBaby seemed WAY too specific to a point where I can only assume a gay men hurt him. Maybe the person responsible for putting his rider together was gay and refused to suck his dick when he brought in DaBaby's bowl of Skittles with the yellows all picked out.
Gays be known for being in ERRRBODY's business. But bitch. Don't nobody involve themselves in gay business like a cis gendered straight man. Pride will be about to pull up, and the straights wanna know where the straight Pride at. Lil Nas X will buss it open on Satan, and the straights wanna know why the blasphemy. A rapper is here at a concert, and he wants to take time to say gay related foolishness.
Bye.
Just when DaBaby's PR team thought they already had enough of a mess on their hands, DaBaby responded to the backlash on Instagram, where he just threw his threw his clown wig wearing-ass head first into more ignorance. Claiming that his gays fans have class and don't have AIDS. Because by default, gays apparently don't have class. And not having class immediately makes you more likely to suck a dick in a parking lot and catch AIDS. This is life as a gay man according to DaBaby.
Chile. Somebody tell DaBaby to go watch Halston.
This whole narrative of only highly sexually active men contracting HIV needs to stop.
Let me just run some statistics by you real quick.
- HIV is not just a gay man thing. Every week, around 5,000 young women aged 15–24 years become infected with HIV.
- Many women in Sub-African countries who have HIV contracted it through sexual assault from straight cis-gendered men.
- HIV is not some secular thing. As of 2020, there were approximately 37 million people living with HIV.
- Of the percentage of people that make up the 'HIV population', the biggest chunk accounts for 38%, which are people who fall outside of sex workers, clients of sex workers, cis-gendered gay men, substance users or trans folk. Men and women.
- In 2019, 67% of all people living with HIV were accessing treatment. Of those, 59% were virally suppressed. (Virally supressed means that a person is undetectable, which means that their HIV viral load is so low that they cannot pass HIV onto somebody else).
Based on statistics, there is a VERY high likelihood that there were people in that crowd who were HIV positive. And not just men. Because some of y'all dumb bitches really be thinking that HIV is a gay thing. Yes, the likelihood of contracting HIV is increased if you are a man having sex with other men. But it is by no means a gay exclusive thing. If we really wanna talk 'bout it, the largest demographic living with HIV are Black women.
Get this fool outta here.
The fact that DaBaby felt so emboldened to say what he said is a whole problem in and of itself, but it says more about the world that we live in more than it does DaBaby. DaBaby's wholly incorrect knowledge of HIV does not exist in a vacuum. Many people share his thoughts on HIV, which continually fuels the stigma around it - even within the queer community. If anything it's worse in the queer community, where somebody having HIV immediately has gays insinuate that they must fuck around a lot. With men refusing to date or have sex with somebody who is HIV out of fear of catching it, even though many men who are HIV positive and know it, are undetectable.
This is also part of the fallout of Trump's presidency, and one of the most dangerous things about it. A precedent has now clearly been set in terms of what people can get away with. We had a whole president cause insurrection and race riots get off scott free. Mere weeks go the US let a whole rapist let out of prison. DaBaby went on that stage saying what he said, knowing he could still walk away with his whole career still in one piece, with no repercussions - because he's seen men run AMOK and get away with murder like they Annalise.
People online are joking that Dua Lipa and Elton John are going to end his career. But how!? There is so little overlap between their fanbases, despite Elton John having collaborated with rappers and Duolingo having a song out with DaBaby. And as revered as Elton John is and as popular as Duolingo is, neither have the power to cancel DaBaby, and he knows it. Which is why he came out and dragged Dua after she responded to his Rolling Loud comment.
I'm so done with these Black men out here being misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic pieces of shit, and them still being able to keep their careers and have their dumb ass circle of Black men and women hold them down. I don't get how so many women can keep doing songs with Chris Brown after he assaulted Rihanna, and the colourist shit he stays saying. I don't get how y'all can keep streaming Tory Lanez music after he shot Megan Thee Stallion. And I know that y'all will stay streaming DaBaby's shit, even after all this. And that apology that he gave? Whack. Because I just find it hard to believe that he wrote it, let alone meant it.
Artists are not monoliths, but they also need to be held accountable for their decisions to work with certain artists and place a Billboard chart position over morals. It's cute that Duolingo put out a statement saying that she doesn't support DaBaby. But she still went and put him on a remix of a song ("Levitating" did not need any type of remix in the first fucking place) after the whole mess of him assaulting a woman. And Brazilian pop star Anitta who also collaborated with DaBaby is out here with her Twitter statement preaching ending the stigma of HIV, but she went and did a song with Cardi B and was out here doing that lil' "WAP" challenge on TikTok after she made an inflammatory comment about HIV in 2019. And we can't play the 'Maybe they didn't know' card, because both of these stories were big news of a magnitude where it's just not possible that not a single person in either Dua or Anitta's camps could have unaware. But they chose to prioritise chart success over morals. And they were both QUICK to come out with statements about DaBaby's comments, because they know they owe their popularity to the gays. It's hard not to be cynical when so much of what artists do in these situations is about saving face above all else, and trying to plaster over mistakes as opposed to learning from them. It's also very telling that both Anitta and Duolingo's statements spoke only of DaBaby's comments on HIV, but did not mention a single thing about the fact that he brought out Tory Lanez, who shot big ass Megan Thee Stallion.
I'm all for artists growing, learning and changing. But at which point does a seemingly honest mistake become a sign of ignorance and a refusal to care? And at what point does a true desire to want equality and understanding become performative advocacy?
Artists and fans alike will support an artist like DaBaby who makes comments such as this, that will have Black boys and Black men crawl so far into the back of that closet they gon' end up in Narnia. Yet they will buy a first class ticket on the 'Trash Lil Nas X Express' - all the while Lil Nas X is living in his light and being the actual positive representation that Black queer boys need over trash men like DaBaby, Death Note Ryok lookin' ass Boosie, Tory Lanez and T.I - who keep showing their ass and that they ain't shit, and three of them have kids. Boosie is out here paying grown women to throw their ass on a minor, and T.I was accompanying his daughter to her gynaecology appointments to make sure she's still a virgin. But sure. Black gays are the problem. Lawd help their children if they are / become queer were to contract HIV. Maybe they'd change and turn a corner when the shit hits closer to home, but the example they're setting for their children as of now is trash.
Folk need to do better. I need artists and the industry to really make good on accountability. Some of these artists are given far too big a platform to spew shit that is genuinely hateful and will have lasting effects. And fellow celebs, the media and the industry as a whole let far too much of this bullshit slide. Too many blind eyes are turned because nobody wants to close the door on a collab, exclusive coverage or a potential favour down the road - even for those who are showing who they are and that who they are is a piece of shit.
Shout outs to the person who threw a shoe at DaBaby. I hope they're having a blessed day.If Duolingo is really 'bout it, I'mma need her to pull the version of "Levitating" which features DaBaby off of streaming, and get the music video re-edited to the video for the album version of the song; which was always the superior version of the damn song in the first place.
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