DaBaby has faced significant public backlash following his comments during the 2021 Rolling Loud Festival in Miami. Two years later, DaBaby is back with another record on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Now, he apparently feels he has overcome the hit drought. Real 92.3’s Bootleg Kev recently spoke to the Call Da Fireman EP creator about surviving so-called cancel culture.
“I’ve been riding with you for a long time, and I’m just super happy that you got through this weird cancel cloud,” Kev said. “You have officially defeated cancel culture.” DaBaby responded, “For sure… We’re gonna stay on top where we belong.”
DaBaby’s “Shake Sumn” peaked at No. 69 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming his first charting entry of the year. So far, the track has held a spot on the weekly rankings of the most popular songs in America seven times.
The rapper has faced an uphill climb following his comments at Rolling Loud Miami. He told the crowd at the time, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of [those] deadly sexually transmitted diseases, that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cellphone lighter up.”
The Interscope recording artist also said, “Ladies, if your p#### smells like water, put your cellphone lighter up. Fellas, if you ain’t sucking a n####’s dick in the parking lot, put your cellphone lighter up.”
Critics categorized those comments as homophobic ,which led to DaBaby losing partnership deals and other festival gigs. In response, he posted an apology to the LGBTQ community before deleting that apology a week later.
There were questions about whether DaBaby could continue to achieve mainstream success following the Rolling Loud Miami controversy. He scored multiple Top 10 hits prior to the incident, including going No. 1 with “Rockstar” featuring Roddy Ricch.
However, only one of DaBaby’s songs from 2022 managed to make it onto the Billboard Hot 100. “Neighborhood Superstar” with NBA YoungBoy stayed on the chart for one week.