DaBaby’s career may never fully recover from his controversial statements on the Rolling Loud stage in Miami last year, but apparently, that won’t stop him from continuing to defend himself from accusations of homophobia. During a recent appearance on New York’s The Breakfast Club, he once again addressed the backlash sparked by his awkwardly-worded call to action, pointing out how social media can warp perceptions, and refusing to make apologies for himself.
“I didn’t mean what you think I meant,” he said. “What you want me to do? Go look myself in the mirror and say, ‘You don’t like gay people?’ Nah. I’m not trippin’ on gay people at all. If I said what I said to get people to raise they cell phones and it was misinterpreted by people who watch a five-second clip at home. You not supposed to understand what’s going on. You could raise your cell phone if you wanted to. You ain’t supposed to be able to digest a clip that’s been altered and shortened with a narrative to go along with it, with enough people driving it, it gonna do what it do.”
However, he’s still failed to address how and why his comment was taken so poorly, or successfully explain what he really meant. During his set, as he hyped up the Rolling Loud crowd, he said, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases, that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cellphone lighter up… Fellas, if you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up.”
Since it’s easy to see how such a statement could be interpreted as homophobic — to say nothing of the misinformation about people living with HIV and/or AIDS — the least he could do is acknowledge as much while providing an alternative translation. And while he did issue two separate quasi-apologies on Instagram, he later deleted both and has since argued that the people who took offense were being too sensitive and twisting his words.
Watch the clip above.