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On Sunday morning, many observers were surprised when Lollapalooza announced that the night’s headliner for beleaguered rapper DaBaby – who had sparked a series of homophobic comments during the week, starting with his performance at the Rolling Loud festival. Miami – was canceled.
The surprise wasn’t the cancellation, but rather the fact that it had taken so long. DaBaby’s inflammatory comments and unconvincing apology attempts had sparked a storm of criticism from fans, executives, other performers – and now, the festival he was supposed to be making headlines.
“Lollapalooza was founded on diversity, inclusiveness, respect and love,” says the announcement. “With that in mind, DaBaby will no longer be performing at Grant Park tonight.” In his place, Atlanta’s Young Thug, who was slated to play a niche earlier, was invited to headlining.
Over the next few hours and days, DaBaby would see nearly every concert on its itinerary canceled, including headliners at several festivals – as if Lollapalooza’s announcement triggered a domino effect that others were following.
What took so long? According to insiders, internal debates between Lollapalooza organizers, including C3 Presents and Live Nation, escalated on Friday night when festival founder Perry Farrell allegedly phoned DaBaby, but was not swayed by their conversation. . (A representative for Farrell did not respond to VarietyAccording to Billboard, DaBaby also promised that an apology video would be shown at Lollapalooza and other festivals where he apologized more sincerely to the LGBTQ community, but that “never happened.”
At one point on Saturday, organizers abandoned their efforts to allow DaBaby to use the platform to make a positive statement.
Around midnight, Young Thug received the official request to take DaBaby’s place. The team (Young Thug is managed by Geoff Ogunlesi and booked by Mike G. at UTA) quickly accepted the new niche, seeing it as an opportunity to present their colorful ensemble of 30 high production value dancers to a massive audience. of about 100,000.
The main executives of DaBaby’s label, Interscope, as well as senior executives at Universal Music Group were also “extremely upset” by the rapper’s remarks. DaBaby’s “Rockstar”, starring Roddy Ricch, was among the greatest songs of 2020 (she has moved 7.2 million song units to date, according to Alpha Data Music); Complicating matters further, the company is in the midst of an IPO which is expected to launch next month.
After Lollapalooza, Governor’s Ball, New York Music Festival, also removed the rapper from its lineup, writing in a statement: “Founders Entertainment does not and will not tolerate hatred or discrimination of any kind.” Shortly after, Austin City Limits, which is owned by C3 Presents, the same parent company as Lollapalooza, announced that DaBaby would no longer perform at the Texas festival. And from there the dominoes kept falling: Day N Vegas, iHeartRadio Music Festival, Can’t Wait Live !, Music Midtown, and Parklife Festival also removed DaBaby from their lineups. On Thursday, Kansas’ Hot 103 Jamz Summer Jam and New Jersey’s Hot 97 Summer Jam remain the rapper’s only appearances at the festival.
On Wednesday, GLAAD, along with 10 other national LGBTQ and HIV / AIDS organizations, issued an open letter to DaBaby requesting a private meeting to discuss the facts about HIV and how it is a preventable and treatable disease, and discuss ‘a long-term opportunity. for him to pass the education on to his fan base. The letter read, “We have heard your inaccurate and damaging comments to Rolling Loud and read your apologies on Instagram. However, at a time when HIV continues to disproportionately impact black Americans and queer and transgender people of color, dialogue is essential. We need to address the poor education about HIV, expressed in your comments, and the impact it has on various communities. “
What remains unclear is whether or not DaBaby will be paid for any of the performances. When it comes to festival contracts, a “morality clause” is generally not a stipulation imposed on an act by the organizers. As for the payment when an artist is drawn in the morning from his headlining box? It’s likely he kept a deposit, typically 10% of the performance fee, which in DaBaby’s case could have fetched around $ 200,000 based on a rate of $ 2 million. However, another gig industry insider speculated that due to the late cancellation DaBaby could have secured 50%. DaBaby is booked in North America by Andrew Lieber at MAC Agency. It is conducted by Arnold Taylor of the South Coast Music Group.
Reps for the rapper and Lollapalooza did not immediately respond to Varietyrequests for comments. However, one thing is clear over the last 12 days of DaBaby’s career: In the music world of 2021, homophobia is bad for business.
With a report by Jem Aswad.
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