Rolling Loud Says DaBaby Has ‘Grown’ Up, Preps Tour for Embattled Rapper
The live music brand Rolling Loud — best known for its festivals in Miami, New York, and California — is sponsoring DaBaby’s next tour after the rapper returned to the Rolling Loud Stage in New York last week as a guest of 50 Cent.
Their support comes following the rapper’s misogynistic, homophobic, and ill-informed rant at Rolling Loud Miami in July. “Rolling Loud supports second chances and we believe DaBaby has grown and learned from his experience,” said the company in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Everyone is welcome and we look forward to DaBaby’s fans seeing him live.”
Dubbed the Live Show Killa Tour presented by Rolling Loud, DaBaby’s next excursion will hit nearly two dozen cities across the U.S. This summer, a slew of festivals — including Governors Ball, Lollapalooza, and Austin City Limits — removed DaBaby from their line-ups after his set in Miami.
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On the Rolling Loud Miami stage, DaBaby tried to hype the crowd with degrading statements. “Ladies, if your pussy smell like water, put your cellphone light up. Fellas, if you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone light up,” he said. He also said, “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 your cellphone light up.”
In addition, he seemed to taunt Megan Thee Stallion by bringing out her alleged shooting assailant, Tory Lanez. His appearance violated the criminal restraining order barring Lanez from coming within 100 yards of or harassing Megan. Lanez is set to testify in a preliminary hearing in the case next month.
On Aug. 25, DaBaby participated in a virtual meeting with HIV advocates from nine organizations like GLAAD and the Black AIDS Institute about the virus and their work in Black, LGBTQ, and faith communities. Earlier, those organizations and more had asked to speak with DaBaby. They seemed to have found their meeting successful.
“During our meeting, DaBaby was genuinely engaged, apologized for the inaccurate and hurtful comments he made about people living with HIV, and received our personal stories and the truth about HIV and its impact on Black and LGBTQ communities with deep respect,” the groups said in a joint statement. “We appreciate that he openly and eagerly participated in this forum of Black people living with HIV, which provided him an opportunity to learn and to receive accurate information.”
A day later, on Aug. 26, he appeared on stage with Marilyn Manson at Kanye West’s Donda listening event in Chicago, prompting some backlash. Manson had recently been accused of sexual and physical abuse in multiple lawsuits and had more than a dozen women levy sexual impropriety and abuse allegations against him.
