T.I, DaBaby and DaBullshit

The sole upside to DaBaby’s notorious rant at the Rolling Loud festival is that it illustrates that we have FINALLY reached a stage where a rapper being publicly, obnoxiously homophobic represents national news and a major controversy with the potential to ruin a rapper’s otherwise thriving career rather than a matter of a rapper being a rapper. 

What struck me about DaBaby’s rant, which includes gems like the following, “You didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of those deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die [in] two, three weeks, put your cellphone light in the air” and “Ladies, if your pussy smell like water, put a cell phone light in the air. Fellas, if you ain’t sucking n**** dick in the parking lot, put your cell phone lights in the air.” is how incredibly unnecessary and weirdly retro it was. 

It was the very definition of an unforced error. DaBaby could have said anything to revelers enjoying a massive show after a cataclysmic pandemic and he decided, in his wisdom, to pop off about how having AIDS will make you die in less than a month and he didn’t want anyone who performed fellatio in the parking light to raise their iPhones in the air. 

It was almost as if DaBaby was paying reverent homage to the homophobia of the mid 1980s, when Eddie Murphy made anti-gay bigotry and ignorance a central component of his smash hit concert film Raw and DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince inexplicably decided to include a track called “Live at Union Square: November 1986” on its seminal album I’m the Rapper, He’s the DJ that included sentiments like, “All the homeboys that got AIDS be quiet” and “All the girls out there that don't like guys, be quiet.”

When Will Smith recorded “Live at Union Square: November 1986” he was only a few months removed from being a teenager. He wasn’t able to drink legally and inhabited a world full of misinformation and fear mongering about AIDS and homosexuality, when people genuinely thought they could contract the disease from sharing a toothbrush or a toilet seat. 

That doesn’t forgive the song’s odious homophobia, or Murphy’s appalling riffs on AIDS but it does provide context. 

For much of its existence homophobia wasn’t just acceptable in Hip Hop: it was rigidly enforced. The history of battle rap is in no small part an odious, ongoing tradition of toxic men accusing each other of being gay or enjoying homosexual acts. 

Thankfully things have changed since then. The idea that one of the most popular, talked about rappers alive would be a flamboyant, out gay provocateur like Lil Nas X would have been utterly inconceivable to me when I was fourteen. Hell, it would have been inconceivable to me when I was thirty-four as well.

Instead of DaBaby’s tantrum being accepted as business as usual, the rapper has been dropped by Lollapalooza, Parklife, The Governors Ball, Day N Vegas, Music Midtown, iHeartRadio The Daytime Stage, and Austin City Limits.

That’s a lot! But with progress invariably comes a backlash and the deeply odious T.I defended DaBaby’s ignorant homophobia by falsely equating DaBaby’s virulent homophobia with Lil Nas X’s open homosexuality, whining “ if you gon’ have the Lil Nas X video and him living his truth, you gon’ damn sure have people like DaBaby who gon’ speak they truth and it ain’t none wrong with none of it.” 

Actually there is something DEEPLY wrong with DaBaby telling a crowd that people with AIDS are gross and will die within a month. There’s no truth in DaBaby’s words. They’re hateful and bigoted and wrong. 

In an astonishing bit of historical revisionism, T.I had the audacity to claim that a famously homophobic realm like Hip Hop is actually incredibly progressive when it comes to the LGTBQ community, insisting, “We all stood up on behalf of gays and lesbians and people in the gay community because we thought it was some bulls–t for y’all to have to be bullied. But I don’t think any of us did that to feel like you would now have the authority to come and bully us.”

That’s like insisting that gangsta rap has always been the domain of radical, sex-positive feminists so women of the world owe the NWAs and Geto Boys a debt they can never repay. 

T.I is like the Bill Cosby of Hip Hop in that he has been credibly accused of drugging and sexually assaulting dozens of women over an extended period of time (with his wife Tiny) yet that somehow had not kept the rapper/actor/probable serial sex criminal from appointing himself the conscience and soul of black America. 

Astonishingly, DaBaby’s first “explanation” for his rant were nearly as idiotic, as he wrote, “All the lights went up, gay or straight, you want to know why? Cause even my gay fans don’t get f**king AIDS… They don’t got AIDS, my gay fans, they take care of themselves… they ain’t no junkees.”

When DaBaby began to see his career flashing before his eyes he realized that he had to apologize in a way that didn’t make everything substantially worse. So his people issued an apology that included sentiments like, “As a man who has had to make his own way from very difficult circumstances, having people I know publicly working against me — knowing that what I needed was education on these topics and guidance – has been challenging.”

DaBaby is nearly 30 years old. He’s a household name. He’s not the victim in this situation, in any sense. It is not the responsibility of the LGTBQ community to give DaBaby the guidance and education to not say hateful, bigoted shit about gay men and people with AIDS. 

When DaBaby’s self-serving apology did not keep him from getting dropped from a flurry of festivals he deleted the apology from his Instagram, underlining and highlighting how deeply insincere and mercenary his “apology” and “regret” are. 

DaBaby isn’t the victim of the bogeyman known as “Cancel Culture.” Instead what he’s experiencing now are consequences for his words, behavior and lack of genuine remorse. 

In this case it seems ENTIRELY appropriate to throw DaBaby out with DaBathwater. 

Missed out on the Kickstarter campaign for The Weird A-Coloring to Al/The Weird A-Coloring to Al-Colored In Edition? You’re in luck, because you can still pre-order the books, and get all manner of nifty exclusives, by pledging over at https://the-weird-a-coloring-to-al-coloring-colored-in-books.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Be a part of the recently launched Indiegogo campaign for 7 Days in Ohio II: Return of the Juggalos over at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/make-7-days-in-ohio-2-return-of-the-juggalo-happen--2/x/14797497#/ and help send Nathan back to the Gathering for the EIGHTH time for more literary magic, madness and miracles! 

Pre-order The Joy of Trash, the Happy Place’s upcoming book about the very best of the very worst and get instant access to all of the original pieces I’m writing for them AS I write them (there are EIGHT so far, including Shasta McNasty and the first and second seasons of Baywatch Nights) AND, as a bonus, monthly write-ups of the first season Baywatch Nights you can’t get anywhere else (other than my Patreon feed) at https://the-joy-of-trash.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

and of course you can buy The Weird Accordion to Al here: https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop

AND of course you can also pledge to this site and help keep the lights on at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace