T.I. falsely accuses LGBTQ+ community of bullying in response to DaBaby criticism
T.I. recently defended the embattled rapper over his homophobic comments on an Instagram post
The fallout from DaBaby‘s Rolling Loud performance continues to make headlines. In a recent video on social media, T.I. continued to defend DaBaby, shifting the blame onto the LGBTQ+ community and accusing them of “bullying.”
As TheGrio previously reported, it’s been a wild week for DaBaby. During his Rolling Loud performance, the rapper went on a homophobic rant, telling the crowd, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases, then put your cell phone lighter up. Ladies, if your p— smell like water, put your cell phone lighter up. Fellas, if you ain’t sucking d— in the parking lot, put your cell phone lighter up.”
While the rant immediately went viral, with many public figures like Questlove, Elton John, and more condemning his remarks, some members of the hip-hop community seem to be standing by him — none more so than rapper T.I.
Early this week, T.I. wrote on an Instagram post about DaBaby, “If Lil Nas X can kick his s— in peace… so should dababy,” implying that because Lil Nas X, an openly gay rapper, simply exists, that should excuse any and all of DaBaby’s actions.
Social media immediately caught wind of this as well, with T.I. trending on Twitter for a lot of the week.
As TheGrio reported, one user wrote under the same post, “Da Baby is bashing/ judging people. Lil Nas X is expressing himself, how are these even in the same conversation?”
Now, T.I. is doubling down and claiming the LGBTQ+ community is “bullying” DaBaby.
“Everyone up in arms and upset about what DaBaby said,” T.I. shared in a now-viral Instagram video.
“Now, I understand people saying that they feel it’s insensitive. I think you guys have to understand that onstage is not the place that rappers go to be sensitive and soothe everybody’s feelings. It’s a place to go to have a good time.”
The rapper then continues to make a perplexing comparison, saying that because rappers have to watch white fans say the N-word, they shouldn’t be expected to be held to “such a high standard of morality.”
Then, T.I. proceeded to say the LGBTQ+ community is bullying people that “stood up for them” for years.
He shared, “That s— is…Now you bullying. We all stood up on behalf of gays and lesbians and people in the gay community because we thought it was some bulls— 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.”
As TheGrio reported, DaBaby at first doubled down on his remarks, and then eventually apologized later in the week. He wrote in a tweet, “Anybody who done ever been effected by AIDS/HIV y’all got the right to be upset, what I said was insensitive even though I have no intentions on offending anybody.”
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