DaBaby appears to address homophobic comments in new music video

DaBaby has released a new music video that appears to address the homophobic comments he made during his performance at Rolling Loud festival in Miami.

The rapper, 29, told the audience at his show last weekend to hold their phones in the air unless they had HIV or were gay men who had sex in car parks.

His remarks quickly drew backlash online, including from Elton John and his former collaborator Dua Lipa, who said she was “horrified” by his words. He was also dropped by the clothing brand boohooMAN.

The artist, real name Jonathan Kirk, subsequently apologised for his remarks on Twitter, writing: “Anybody who done ever been effected 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.”

DaBaby has now put out 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 continues.

In the video, the rapper also holds up a sign saying “AIDS” in sync with the lyric: “B****, we like AIDS, I’m on your ass, we won’t go away.”

Along with the video, DaBaby posted lengthy, defensive Instagram posts, complaining that a “substantial amount of people refuse to understand” his logic.