Rapper DaBaby recently implied that he didn’t regret his controversial comments during his set at Rolling Loud Miami in 2021, despite previously apologizing for the incident. For the unversed, DaBaby performed at the music festival on July 25, 2021, and brought out Tory Lanez as his special guest. His set was right after Megan Thee Stallion, who had accused Lanez of shooting her in the foot the previous year.
While Lanez’s appearance came as a surprise, what shocked fans more was DaBaby’s comments about HIV. During his set, the rapper asked fans to hold up their phone lights, saying:
“If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of them deadly s*xually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cellphone lighter up. Ladies, if your p*ssy smell like water, put your cellphone lighter up. Fellas, if you ain’t sucking d*ck in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up.”
The rapper’s comments received immediate backlash. While he initially doubled down amid the criticism, he later apologized for his words. However, the rapper currently seems to have no regrets over what he said.
When DaBaby appeared on the February 17, 2026, episode of Perspektives With Bank, he was asked about whether he regretted his comments, to which he replied:
“Saying what?… I had the most lit set in the most goddamn show. Even the interview I do when I get off the stage, they were like, ‘you had the best… the proof is in the pudding…’ N****s still saying s**t like that now, but they not Baby. They’re not a household name in every goddamn continent of the world. They ain’t did SNL, Jimmy Fallon. All that shit, it ain’t even worth it to them… Me like, I got real deal influence.”
What did DaBaby say after receiving backlash?
According to Billboard, DaBaby initially doubled down on the comments he made during his Rolling Loud Miami set. On July 26, 2021, he took to his Instagram Story to suggest that the incident was blown up online, further adding:
“My gay fans, they take care of themselves. They ain’t no nasty gay n***as. See what I’m saying? They ain’t no junkies in the street. The hell you talking about, n***as? Then I said if you ain’t sucking d*ck in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up. You know what my gay fans did? Put that motherf**king light up, n***a, ’cause my gay fans ain’t going for that. They got class. They ain’t sucking no d*ck in no parking lot.”
However, his comments and doubling down divided netizens and artists. T.I. defended DaBaby, saying that there was “ain’t nothing wrong” with the rapper speaking his “truth.”
However, Dua Lipa, who worked with the rapper on a remix of Levitating, said she was “surprised and horrified” by his comments in an Instagram Story on July 26. On July 27, 2021, DaBaby apologized for his comments in an X post, writing:
“Anybody who done ever been affected 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.”
He later posted a cryptic follow-up post, writing that people “digested” what he said the wrong way.
DaBaby’s career took a hit following the comments he made at Rolling Loud 2021. The Lollapalooza music festival dropped the rapper from its lineup in August 2021, and he was removed from the lineup of a benefit concert for the Working Families Party that year. During a 2023 interview on the Club Shay Shay podcast, the rapper claimed that he lost around $200 million due to the controversy.
Edited by Juhi Marzia
