Madonna has become the latest high-profile name to call out DaBaby for homophobic comments he made during a recent performance at Miami’s Rolling Loud Festival.
The rapper, real name Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, made a series of controversial comments about AIDS and HIV during his appearance at the event last weekend.
The rapper drew backlash after telling the crowd: “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS… put your cellphone light up… Fellas, if you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone light up.”
Criticising the rapper in an open letter, Madonna wrote: ““If you’re [DaBaby] going to make hateful remarks to the LGBTQ+ community about HIV/AIDS, then know your facts.”
The singer then highlighted how “there are life-saving medicines available to children born with HIV”.
Madonna further explained that “people who contract HIV through blood transfusions, dirty needles, or exchange of bodily fluids” can be helped by “new ARV’s (antiretroviral drugs) [that] can keep a person with AIDS alive for the rest of their lives”.
“I want to put my cellphone lighter up and pray for your ignorance,” she said. “No one dies of AIDS in two or three weeks anymore.”
She also criticised the singer’s “sexist” comments about “ladies who’s pussies need to smell like water”.
“[Your comments] only encourage more discrimination against women who fight daily against the oppression of living under the constraints of the Male Gaze,” wrote Madonna.
“People like you are the reason we are still living in a world divided by fear,” she added. “All Human beings should be treated with dignity and respect regardless of race, gender, sexual preference or religious beliefs. AMEN.”
Multiple artists and organisations have criticised DaBaby for his comments after they were first made. Elton John – who founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation charity in 1992 – took to Instagram to condemn his statements, saying they “fuel stigma and discrimination.”
HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust also denounced his comments, saying that they “perpetuate HIV-related stigma and discrimination, as well as spreading misinformation about HIV.”
Dua Lipa, who collaborated with DaBaby on a remix of her song ‘Levitating’, said she was “surprised and horrified” by the rapper’s comments.
The rapper has since touched on his controversial remarks once again in a self-directed video for his new song ‘Giving What It’s Supposed to Give’. The video ends with the message: “Don’t Fight Hate With Hate” in rainbow lettering. “My apologies for being me, the same way you want the freedom to be you,” it concludes.