Madonna is the latest music star to call out DaBaby for comments he made last weekend that were labelled misinformed and homophobic.
“If you’re going to make hateful remarks to the LGBTQ+ community about HIV/AIDS then know your facts,” the 62-year-old wrote in an Instagram post. “People like you are the reason we are still living in a world divided by fear.”
During his set at the Rolling Loud festival in Miami Gardens, Florida, the rapper told the crowd: “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 … Fellas, if you ain’t sucking n***a d**k in the parking lot, put your cellphone light up.”
The following day, DaBaby addressed growing criticism of his comments by suggesting that his gay fans are too good to expose themselves to HIV. “They got class,” he said. “They ain’t sucking no d**k in no parking lot.”
Madonna fumed: “After decades of hard won scientific research— there are now life saving medicines available to children born with HIV, to people who contract HIV through blood transfusions, dirty needles or exchange of bodily fluids. These new ARV’s can keep a person with AIDS alive for the rest of their lives!!! AID’s is not transmitted by standing next to someone in a crowd.
“I want to put my cellphone lighter up and pray for your ignorance, No one dies of AIDS in 2 or 3 weeks anymore.”
Madonna also called DaBaby out for a crude comment about women’s genitalia. “Your sexist remarks … only encourage more discrimination against women who fight daily against the oppression of living under the constraints of the Male Gaze.”
Earlier in the week, Dua Lipa and Elton John condemned DaBaby’s words, with the latter saying: “This fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic.”
DaBaby apologized on Tuesday. “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,” he wrote. “So my apologies.”
On Wednesday, he insisted he “meant no harm” and “truly didn’t mean to offend anybody” but lashed out at people who “play with your character and do everything they can to take money out of your pockets and food out your kids mouth.”