I usually don’t have much to say about celebrities. There are so many other more important, pressing issues we’re facing than a statement from a blue checkmark account announcing their departure from a social media platform or the illustrious entanglements famous people find themselves in. Now, don’t get me wrong, I consume pop culture like a hungry hungry hippo, but it’s not something I feel compelled to write about too often. However, this unhinged tirade from DaBaby that took place during one of the many insanely populated music festivals (we’re still in a pandemic, eep!), Rolling Loud, has me in a state of anger and exasperation.
I’ve linked the story above, but a quick recap: DaBaby said some wholly wrong and downright confusing things about women, people having sexually transmitted diseases, and people performing sexual acts in parking lots completely unprompted during his performance and there is an appropriate backlash happening along with a reckoning about the many misinformed and painful statements consistently espoused by narrow-minded rappers.
Cancel culture of course made its way into the conversation and continues to be used so flippantly and excessively its meaning has been entirely lost. Cancel culture represents different things for different people. The ambiguity of it all makes it a perfect catch-all phrase to describe what happens to people when they’re called out for terrible things they’ve done and said- which are just consequences. BUT being “cancelled” has no real definition. Someone can be considered “cancelled” but nothing happens to them, so Cancel Culture isn’t really a thing. It’s a talking point people used to incite outrage but in reality means nothing. Cancel culture was derived from the internet and like many things on the internet overtime gets reinterpreted and misinterpreted until it morphs into something so far from what it was at inception. Whenever I hear someone say anything about “cancelling” someone I run away.
Anyway, this post isn’t about what I think about Cancel Culture, but how I feel some folks are handling DaBaby’s backlash, including himself.
Let’s start out with how he doubled down on his uncomfortable proclamations at Rolling Loud stupidly explaining his fans don’t do that or have diseases. Okay. Well, he was loud and wrong once, and then thought it would be better to continue being loud and wrong in the face of countless people telling him to shut up and listen. Then queue up TI who basically said, Da Baby should be allowed to say whatever he wants without repercussion along with some other messy celebrities and rappers running to his defense citing how all these other white men aren’t cancelled (which WHAT?! *see below) and that DaBaby didn’t know any better. I saw something about how Eminem said homophobic things and there’s no backlash with him, but like YES THERE WAS and he has since done better so like…..
*I know why. It’s because some of these rappers want to be untouchable and be able to move through the world like rich white men regardless of what that means for the black community and how detrimental that mentality is as an oppressed person. Yes, it doesn’t make sense that these white men in power are able to get away with literal murder, but that means there is something wrong with society that needs to be fixed, it’s not something to aspire to, but I digress…
Then the apology comes out (which has since been deleted) and from the beginning to the end of it you could tell it was coming from a place of anger and resentment rather than a genuine confession of wrongdoing and a desire to learn. At this point, we’re seeing him being pulled from festival after festival, show after show. Though it’s good to see there are real world actions taken to show solidarity with the communities he so foolishly attacked, let’s be honest. These huge festivals are most likely dabbling in some ethically ambiguous practices, so it’s not so much a testament to how “woke” or culturally aware these festivals are but a relief that as Crissle and Kid Fury often say, words mean things. His words meant being removed from bills and did so much harm to people who are exhausted and frustrated by sheer ignorance perpetuated in toxic masculinity disguised as innocent mistakes. DaBaby blamed his childhood and environment for saying what he did, and I don’t think that’s a wholly inconceivable explanation, but I do think it’s definitely not the entire problem and makes it seem like everyone who grew up in similar circumstances feels this way, which is unequivocally untrue. There has always been an undercurrent of homophobia and transphobia in the black community that isn’t often talked about in the mainstream because it feels like a conversation we should be having within our community, but the conversations are not being had enough. I think more recently these issues of violence and prejudice are being addressed, but we all as a society have a lot of work to do to protect and uplift our black LGBTQI+ brothers, sisters, and non-binary family. Not to mention the misogynoir that manifests in constant criticism of how black women should be/act. Dababy may have been taught those things, but instead of admitting wrongdoing he seems to be hellbent on holding on to his biigoted beliefs because, well maybe because he’s too scared to change and feels he looks stronger by doubling down instead of considering he is wrong.
This brings me to the segment on The Breakfast Club where Style P weighed in on Da Baby’s remarks that prompted me to write this. He said:
“If you gonna be on cancel culture, you can’t be with mental health culture either. Who trained DaBaby? You in this industry now, this is how it’s gonna go? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure he’s been around plenty of gay people. He has, he’s in the industry. He’s been styled by them. He’s been dressed by them, he’s done deals.”
HUH. There’s a lot to unpack here, but to even suggest mental health is the reason why DaBaby said any of what he said is a gross assessment of what mental health means. I’ve been seeing this argument floated around before in defense of racist tirades by white celebrities as if racism is a mental health issue and not a choice. I’ve already explained how I feel about the incessant use of cancel culture but to assert that mental health has any standing here is strange. What I think he was really getting at was that there was no one around DaBaby to coach him on the responsibility that comes with being a huge star with millions of followers and people hanging on to every word you say. It does seem like he doesn’t have the best support system, but that doesn’t excuse his behavior and just because he’s been around gay people before doesn’t mean he is knowledgable about gay culture or makes an effort to understand it. Obviously he doesn’t. That’s like that thing where a white person says, but I have black friends.
All in all DaBaby sucks for his hurtful, confusing, and downright shameful words, but I sincerely hope that at some point he starts to understand just how much pain his words caused. I don’t wanna see a callous press release or hear him apologize under duress on a Live. I wanna see him giving back in real ways and an apology that really nails down how he was wrong and what he’ll be doing to be better. I do believe in redemption and that people can be forgiven, but that forgiveness is not for anyone and everyone to give. That forgiveness is on an individual’s basis and not guaranteed. He broke a lot of his fans’ hearts. I don’t know how or if he can make it up to them, but he really should try and if he doesn’t I hope he keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t ever try to speak out of turn about anything or anyone ever again. These celebrities seem to forget they can just say nothing when a microphone is in front of their face. I saw a tweet that said, he could’ve just said raise yo hands up and scream, and we wouldn’t be in this mess. It’s true. He didn’t have to share any of those inner most thoughts, but he did and here we are.
And with that, I’ll close this post out with one of my favorite songs currenly.