Rapper DaBaby was pulled from Sunday’s Lollapalooza amid a brewing controversy over homophobic comments he made during another festival performance last week in Florida.
“Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusivity, respect, and love,” the festival said in a statement Sunday on Twitter. “With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight.”
DaBaby, real name Jonathan Kirk, has come under heavy fire after he went on a controversial rant last Sunday at the Rolling Loud music festival in Miami Gardens, Florida, that targeted gay people and those living with sexually transmitted diseases. During the tirade he falsely referred to HIV and AIDS as “them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two to three weeks.”
The North Carolina rapper’s comments have since prompted backlash from some of music’s biggest names, including Madonna and Elton John.
John, who is gay and lives with HIV, said his team was “shocked to read about the HIV misinformation and homophobic statements made at a recent DaBaby show. This fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic,” John tweeted July 28th.
Young Thug will now perform in DaBaby’s place Sunday at 9 p.m. on the Bud Light Seltzer stage. And G Herbo will perform at the 4 p.m. slot on the T-Mobile stage.