DaBaby says backlash to homophobic rant was ‘blessing in disguise’

Controversial rapper DaBaby has shared that he sees the intense backlash to his 2021 homophobic rant as a “blessing in disguise” that taught him a valuable lesson.

The “Suge” rapper says he lost a whopping $200 million because of the disgusting comments he made about HIV and “sucking d***” while playing at Rolling Loud Festival.

Before he launched into the hateful rampage, DaBaby had been on the up and up, receiving two Grammy nominations in 2020, collaborating with stars like Dua Lipa, Megan Thee Stallion, and Jack Harlow, and repeatedly hitting the Billboard Top 10.

But it all came tumbling down in July 2021, when the rapper launched into a horrific homophobic rant. Shortly after his comments went viral, DaBaby was dropped by fashion brand BoohooMAN, and he was removed from the line-up at festivals like Lollapalooza, the Governors Ball Music Festival, Parklife, and the iHeartRadio Music Festival.

Now, the rapper says that the whole ordeal was a “blessing in disguise”, as it taught him to “sit [his] a** down”.

Speaking to Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast this week, DaBaby said: “In hindsight, that parked me. 

“Who is to say where I would be mentally and spiritually had I not been forced to sit my a** down and self-reflect? Because I still didn’t sit down when it took place.

“I’m fighting it like, ‘Hell nah, that ain’t what it is. I’m telling y’all that ain’t what it is.’ God knows I’m a good fighter, but he was like ‘Yeah, you a good fighter, but sit yo ass down.’”

The rapper, whose real name is Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, continued: “Even when I was getting what I was getting, I had what I had in the bank, this and that, I wasn’t happy as a person. Right now I’m not tripping. 

 “I don’t regret anything that I done been through. It feels so good to be able say that and mean it. 

“I done probably said that before but I ain’t really mean it. It’s like ‘…$200million, y’all robbed me.’ I don’t feel like that. 

“I really feel like that’s a blessing in disguise at this point in my life and I just came to that realisation in the past two weeks. I really feel like I needed the season that I had to endure.

“That’s going to make me way happier a person and make me that much more of a man for the rest of my life.

DaBaby did issue an apology to fans shortly after the incident took place, saying in a statement to X (formerly Twitter): “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 of offending anybody. So my apologies.

“But the LGBT community… I ain’t trippin’ on y’all, you do you. Y’all business is y’all business.”