DaBaby reportedly vowed to support HIV/AIDS organizations following his homophobic rant at the Rolling Loud festival in Miami over the summer, but some charities say he has failed to live up to his promise.
The artist met with several organizations weeks after his inflammatory remarks with the goal of becoming educated on the facts of HIV/AIDS and the community it impacts, theGrio reported. At the time, he also delivered a third apology for making homophobic comments about those living with HIV/AIDS.
Nine organizations in the country met with DaBaby to share the personal stories of people living with HIV/AIDS, TMZ reported. DaBaby also met with leaders from the Black AIDS Institute, GLAAD, Positive Women’s Network, and Transinclusive Group.
Daily Beast followed up with the nine organizations and published an investigative report on Wednesday (World AIDS Day) which claimed DaBaby ghosted the community. Per the report, three of the organizations claim they have not heard from him since the meeting, while six did not respond. Apparently, the hip-hop star has failed to make a single financial donation to the groups that responded to the outlet.
“Since then, we have not received any outreach, partnership, or funding from DaBaby,” Pavni Guharoy at the Black AIDS Institute told the outlet. “The onus is now on him, if he chooses to, to convert his misinformation into allyship by supporting the work of the Black AIDS Institute and other people of color-led HIV organizations.”
During the festival in July, DaBaby encouraged fans to put their phones up if “they didn’t show up today with HIV/AIDS or other STDs that’ll make you die in 2-3 weeks” and if they “didn’t suck a n— d—- in the parking lot,” theGrio reported.
The rapper also said, “Ladies, if your p—- smell like water, put your cellphone lighter up.”
DaBaby initially defended his comments in a viral video of him stating his friends who identify as LGBTQ+ do not have HIV/AIDS because they aren’t “nasty gay n—- or “junkies.”
After his controversial comments, DaBaby was removed from several scheduled performances including headlining Lollapalooza, Governors Ball, and Day N Vegas. He did perform at Hot 97’s Summer Jam and made a surprise appearance at Kanye West‘s latest listening party for Donda, on which he is featured on the song “Jail Pt. 2.”
Soon afterward, DaBaby released an apology on Twitter, writing in part: “Anybody who done ever been affected 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. So my apologies – But the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. y’all business is y’all business.”
DaBaby later released a second apology to his Instagram.
“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,” he wrote in a post that has since been deleted.
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