AUSTIN (KXAN) — Rapper DaBaby was cut from Austin City Limits Music Festival lineup following recent controversy over homophobic remarks made at another music festival last week.
The Grammy-nominated artist, whose name is Johnathan Kirk, was scheduled to close out both weekends of the three-day music festival held at Zilker Park. On Tuesday, the festival tweeted the rapper would no longer be performing.
While on stage last week, the rapper used crude language and asked attendees who weren’t gay men or people not affected by HIV or AIDS to raise their lights up. Video of the remarks quickly spread on social media. The comments sparked criticism from several artists including Madonna, Questlove, and Elton John. Dua Lipa, who collaborated with DaBaby on the popular remix of her song “Levitating,” said she was “surprised and horrified” by his comments.
DaBaby has since been removed from other festivals including New York City’s Governors Ball, Chicago’s Lollapalooza, and iHeartRadio’s Music Festival.
The 29-year-old rapper apologized to the LGBTQ+ community on his Instagram and wrote about experiencing “cancel culture.”
“Social media moves so fast that people want to demolish you before you even have the opportunity to grow, educate and learn from your mistakes,” he wrote. “As a man who has had to make his own way from very difficult circumstances, having people I know publicly working against me – knowing that what I needed was education on these topics and guidance – has been challenging.”
It’s unclear who might replace him in the ACL lineup. Rapper Young Thug and G Herbo were both announced as replacements for Lollapalooza.