DaBaby
Photo Credit: Rich Fury/Getty Images
DaBaby Embraces His Status as the Villain of Hip-Hop
DaBaby brought out Tory Lanez during his performance at Rolling Loud. It was seen as a middle finger towards Megan Thee Stallion.
This past weekend, Rolling Loud — the biggest hip-hop festival in the world — held its annual festival in Miami. The closing act for the weekend was Post Malone. But, by the time Sunday evening was over, there would be another rapper to garner the top headlines.
DaBaby had the 8:45 set on the Ciroc stage — right after Megan Thee Stallionperformed. His performance was a polarizing set where he cemented himself as one of hip-hop's villains. Not only did it include a homophobic rant — where he lashed out against people with AIDs and HIV — but during his set he brought out Tory Lanez, who was, for whatever reason, wearing a teddy bear costume. (DaBaby teased the reveal, telling the crowd,“I’ll give somebody out here a million dollars if they can guess who in here.")
The two performed Lanez's latest single "SKAT," which dropped earlier this summer. On social media, the move was seen as disrespectful gesture toward Meg, who DaBaby has collaborated with in the past.
\u201cDaBaby just brought out Tory Lanez during his Rolling Loud set. Megan Thee Stallion performed before him\n\n\u201d— XXL Magazine (@XXL Magazine) 1627264700
We should add that audience didn't appreciate the move, either. At one point, someone threw an "adida" shoe at DaBaby — George W. Bush style.
\u201c\ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude2d\ud83d\ude02\u201d— Shug (@Shug) 1627265733
This month was the one year anniversary of Tory Lanez allegedly shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot, a matter that is still being investigated. Lanez has been charged with one felony count each of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, personal use of a firearm, and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; he has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has tried to form some type of career comeback, with pretty lackluster results.
This performance also comes weeks after Meg and DaBaby went back and forth on Twitter. After the video for "SKAT" dropped, DaBaby retweeted a tweet making fun of Meg's shooting. (DaBaby said he didn't retweet it and there was some sort of glitch.) Meg responded by tweeting:
"Support me in private and publicly do something different…these industry men are very strange. This situation ain't no damn "beef" and I really wish people would stop down playing it like it's some internet shit for likes and retweets."
DaBaby responded by saying he had no "Bad energy" for her, adding that she should "stay focused."
\u201csupport me in private and publicly do something different\u2026these industry men are very strange. This situation ain\u2019t no damn \u201cbeef\u201d and I really wish people would stop down playing it like it\u2019s some internet shit for likes and retweets.\u201d— TINA SNOW (@TINA SNOW) 1624144804
\u201cYou done let these folks get the best of you thug. ion got no bad energy for ya. \n\nYou know like I know I ain\u2019t no \u201cindustry\u201d nigga , let em fool you into thinking that you trippin. \n\nStand on what you stand on without feeling like I\u2019m against ya. \n\nStay focused my g\ud83d\udda4\ud83d\udcaa\ud83c\udffe\u201d— DaBaby (@DaBaby) 1624145473
\u201cMy stance hasn\u2019t changed at all YOURS has. We already spoke abt this in private and you specifically said \u201cthat ain\u2019t even no good business move why would I promote that shit\u201d but now this ain\u2019t your \u201cbeef\u201d ? That ain\u2019t real. But you stay on ya \u201cbusiness\u201d my g\u201d— TINA SNOW (@TINA SNOW) 1624146082
\u201cYou ain\u2019t tweeting nothing I ain\u2019t tell dat nigga directly. I told him da same shit. lol \n\nWhoever cleared it cleared it, so what. \nShit still ain\u2019t enough of my bidness for MFs to be feelin some type of way bout my pretty chocolate ass\n\nGettin into dat don\u2019t feed my ppl.\u201d— DaBaby (@DaBaby) 1624146913
Rapper Pardison Fontaine, who is currently dating Meg, also added some parting shots.
\u201c@DaBabyDaBaby You a clown ass nigga doin doin clown ass shit then tryin to back pedal .. nigga that\u2019s what it is .. u don\u2019t ever gotta address her again\u201d— DaBaby (@DaBaby) 1624147304
You can see there was still some bad feelings from the respective camps when, days later, Meg and DaBaby were not on stage together during a planned DJ Khaled performance at the 2021 BET Awards.
So, when you add all of that context together, you can see why hip-hop fans on social media felt like this was a weak move on DaBaby's part. As the video was passed around, the reaction is clear — DaBaby sentiment is at a low.
\u201cDababy is quite literally the corniest mf alive, I fear\u201d— Daddy Pluto\ud83e\udeac\ud83e\udd82 (they/them) (@Daddy Pluto\ud83e\udeac\ud83e\udd82 (they/them)) 1627267936
\u201cyes. it\u2019s disrespectful and it\u2019s raggedy and it\u2019s transparent\u201d— Danyel Smith (@Danyel Smith) 1627274852
Does he care? Who knows. But it's clear over the past couple of weeks that Tory and DaBaby — who had a strange incident involving kids selling candy — have embraced their status as hip-hop's two main villains.
After his performance garnered so much negative attention, DaBaby went to social media to address his homophobic comments, saying he wasn't talking to his gay fans because they're not "nasty gay niggas" and "junkies" who do sexual acts in public.
\u201cAnd even the explanation is horrible \ud83d\ude2d\u201d— \ud80c\udc59 (@\ud80c\udc59) 1627327285
Yeah, this is not better.
