She said she was ‘totally available’ to replace the rapper on ‘Levitating’
Following a disgraceful homophobic rant by DaBaby on stage over the weekend, Victoria Monét has stepped in to offer her vocals to Dua Lipa’s “Levitating”. “If she would like to replace DaBaby’s verse on “Levitating” I’m totally available,” she wrote on Twitter.
Appearing at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival, the North Carolina rapper made a series of offensive comments about LGBTQ+ people on stage: “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 dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone light up,” he said.
Dua Lipa said she was “surprised and horrified at DaBaby’s comments. I really don’t recognise this as the person I worked with. I know my fans know where my heart lies and that I stand 100 per cent with the LGBTQ community. We need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/Aids.”
Following the news, DaBaby was criticised by HIV and Aids charity Terrence Higgins Trust, who said that his words “perpetuate HIV-related stigma and discrimination, as well as spreading misinformation about HIV.”
“It’s wrong for people living with HIV to be made to feel lesser or excluded because of their diagnosis – it should be unacceptable in the music industry and in society at large,” said Richard Angell, the charity’s campaigns director. “Comments like DaBaby’s perpetuate HIV-related stigma and discrimination, as well as spreading misinformation about HIV,” he continued. “You can now live a long, healthy life with HIV thanks to medical progress when you’re diagnosed and accessing treatment.”
Medication that helps manage and stop the spread of HIV has been available since 1996. PrEp (pre-exposure prophylaxis) was first introduced in 2012, and can be taken by people who do not have HIV to prevent catching it. After years of campaigning and being surrounded by misinformation, it is now fully available across England.
The 29-year-old rapper offered an apology of sorts yesterday, saying his comments were “insensitive even though I have no intentions on offending anybody. So my apologies,” while also adding: “But the LGBT community... I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. Y’all business is y’all business.”
One Twitter user reacted to the news, writing: “I’ve been living with HIV for two years now. Two years ago, the insensitivity and ignorance of people like DaBaby and others who I’ve seen defend him probably would have caused me to take my life.”
Joining the DaBaby backlash was Lil Nas X’s dad Robert Stafford, who posted: “Bruh sit down, you had your time” on his Instagram story after T.I. involved Nas in the discourse, (confusingly) saying: “If Lil Nas X can kick his s*** in peace… so should DaBaby”.
While we’re very much here for a Monét “Levitating” verse, perhaps a Lil Nas X one would be even better...