Miley Cyrus says DaBaby should be educated instead of cancelled following comments he made last month that were misinformed and homophobic.
“It’s easier to cancel someone than to find forgiveness and compassion in ourselves or take the time to change hearts and minds,” Cyrus wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday. “There’s no room for division if we want to keep seeing progress! Knowledge is power!”
During his set at Rolling Loud in Miami Gardens on July 25, DaBaby 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.”
The rapper later said: ”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. So my apologies.”
But, the next day, he released a music video for a track that includes the line: “B**ch, we like AIDS / I’m on your a** / We on your a**, b**ch / We won’t go away.” The video ends with “Don’t Fight Hate With Hate” in the colours of the LGBT rainbow flag, and “My apologies for being me the same way you want the freedom to be you.”
When several U.S. music festival removed him from their line-ups, DaBaby posted a more formal apology.
“Social media moves so fast that people want to demolish you before you even have the opportunity to grow, educate and learn from your mistakes,” he wrote. “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.”
DaBaby apologized to the LGBTQ+ community “for the hurtful and triggering comments I made” and “for my misinformed comments about HIV/AIDS.”
Calling herself “a proud and loyal member of the LGBTQIA+ community,” Cyrus wrote that “the internet can fuel a lot of hate & anger and is the nucleus of cancel culture…but I believe it can also be a place filled with education, conversation, communication & connection.”
Cyrus said she DM’ed DaBaby an invitation to “talk and see how we can learn from each other and help be part of making a more just and understanding future.”
There was no immediate public response from DaBaby.