There could be no more “popstars, Dua Lipa with DaBaby,” very soon. The rapper’s recent homophobic rant at Rolling Loud has Lipa rethinking their lucrative collaboration on the “Levitating” remix – and fans dreaming up artists to replace him on the hit track.
Lipa, the songstress behind such smash hits as “Don’t Start Now” and “New Rules,” took to Instagram Stories on Tuesday to address comments her former collaborator, DaBaby, made about the LGBTQ community at the Rolling Loud music festival Sunday night.
“I’m surprised and horrified at DaBaby’s comments. I really don’t recognize this as the person I worked with.” she wrote. “I know my fans know where my heart lies and that I 100% stand with the the LGBTQ community. We need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/AIDS.”
Lipa’s statement arrives amid considerable backlash against DaBaby, nee Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, for the shocking remarks he made during his Rolling Loud set at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
“If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two, three weeks, then put your cellphone light up.” Kirk said, adding, “Ladies, if your p— smell like water, put a cellphone light up. Fellas, if you ain’t sucking d— in the parking lot, put your cellphone light up. Keep it real.”
The rapper later attempted (keyword: “attempted”) to explain his statements in a nearly five minute Instagram Stories video Monday.
“I’m gonna address this weak-ass internet s— one time, and then I’mma get back to giving my love to my fans, ’cause what me and my fans do at the live show, it don’t concern you n— on the internet or you bitter b— on the internet,” he began.
“I said, ‘If you don’t got AIDS, put a cellphone lighter up,’” DaBaby told his 19.1 million followers. “I said, ‘If you ain’t suck d— in the parking lot, put your cellphone lights up.’”
“All the lights went up – gay or straight – you wanna know why?” he continued. “Because even my gay fans don’t got f—ing AIDS, stupid ass n—. They don’t got AIDS. My gay fans, they take care of themselves. They ain’t no nasty gay n—, see what I’m saying? They ain’t no junkies on the street.”
He said his crowds put their phones in the air because, “my gay fans, they ain’t going for that. They got class, n—. They ain’t sucking no d— in no parking lot, n—. You gotta get a room, a good one, five-star hotel, or wait ’til they go to the crib. … If they a fan of me, they going for some big dog s—. We ain’t just going for nothing. Even my gay fans got standards!”
Lipa’s fans are not buying any of this.
Prior to the pop star’s statements Tuesday, multiple Twitter campaigns had already begun to recruit another artist to replace DaBaby’s verse on “Levitating,” one of the most popular songs of the past year. Although an alternate remix of the infectious, disco-inspired track already exists with Madonna and Missy Elliot (in addition to Lipa’s solo album version), fans are proposing that she team up with the likes of Megan Thee Stallion and Lil Nas X.
See them make their case here. FYI, that Dua-Megan remix is fan-made, unfortunately.
