Nick Cannon has voiced his support for DaBaby following the rapper’s recent apology for the homophobic comments he made while on stage at Rolling Loud Festival last month.
DaBaby has been widely condemned for the remarks he made about homosexuality and people with HIV/AIDS while on stage in Miami on July 25, with the likes of Elton John, Madonna and Dua Lipa all criticising the rapper. He has also been subsequently dropped from the line-ups of a number of festivals.
After initially defending his actions in a series of videos posted on his Instagram Story, DaBaby issued an apology last week. “I want to apologise to the LGBTQ+ community for the hurtful and triggering comments I made,” he wrote. “Again, I apologise for my misinformed comments about HIV/AIDS and I knew education on this is important. Love to all. God bless.”
DaBaby deleted the apology off his Instagram account over the weekend, though a previous apology he made following Rolling Loud is still visible on his Twitter.
Appearing on The Breakfast Club yesterday (August 9), TV presenter, actor and musician Cannon was asked by the hosts for what advice he would give DaBaby.
“First of all, I think not only in the Black community – and I’ve experienced it – but definitely just men a lot of times, we have that ego,” Cannon replied. “We believe apologising is weakness when it actually takes great strength to step up to anyone and say, ‘I was wrong’.
“I know Baby. And that’s a strong brother… That man just lost his pops, his brother, all the things… and still to have that big smile that he has every day, knowing everything… He a fighter. We’ve seen his back against the wall. He’s swinging, he’s swinging just so he could get out of…. We all have to accept emotion.”
Cannon added that “to say ‘I’m sorry,’ that’s a self-proclamation. To apologise is an action”.
“And to actually repent or atone is actually the next level because now you’re trying to understand, there’s education involved with that, there’s actually community involved with that. And that’s the other thing too, where I challenge all these people who want to cancel somebody, and even specifically in DaBaby’s situation, let’s use this as an opportunity for education.”
Cannon also said that he didn’t agree with festivals pulling DaBaby from their line-ups.
“Just because it’s like, ‘What statement is that making other than you’re just following?’ It’s groupthink. It’s a mentality, it’s mob rule,” he said. “Mob rule has never worked in any society, to where it’s like, ‘Oh well they did it! So we gotta do it,’” he said. “Even when I watched my process, where people I rocked with was like, ‘Man, well, they did, so we gotta follow suit.’
“This is a moment where we should all gather around DaBaby and embrace him, because if we can do that, watch how many mentalities will change in the hip-hop community.”
Cannon added that he would “guarantee you [DaBaby would] sit down and talk with Madonna, I’d guarantee you he’d sit down and talk with Elton John” about his offensive comments.
“Was he wrong, though? Yeah, he was. But there are certain things about it that we’ve been trained to think that. Let’s unpack that. Let’s figure this out.”
Last week Miley Cyrus reached out to DaBaby and called for “forgiveness and compassion” for the rapper in an Instagram post.
