Trailblazing rapper Da Brat says ignore DaBaby – being gay in hip-hop is ‘way better now’
Rapper Da Brat sought to stress that, no, DaBaby does not represent hip-hop. Far from it actually. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
Da Brat has urged the world to simply ignore DaBaby, saying that in her experience, being gay in hip-hop is “way better now”.
The star, the first female rapper ever to go platinum who came out as a lesbian in 2020, weighed in on the scathing criticism DaBaby has faced for delivering a homophobic rant at a gig last month.
Speaking to TMZ Live, the “What’Chu Like’ hitmaker said that DaBaby in no way represents the hip-hop industry.
“It’s way better now,” Da Brat said of homophobia in the industry. “Back in the day it wasn’t cool.”
Da Brat pointed to Ellen DeGeneres as a wider example of a celebrity coming out as queer to backlash, noting how it stopped many other queer entertainers from coming out.
“You know, [Ellen DeGeneres] lost everything when she came out on her show [in 1997]. People didn’t want to deal with it.
“But now it’s 2021 so it’s a different vibe, totally, and people are 100 per cent supportive.”
She then took a moment to voice how “grateful” she is to her fans for sticking by her when she came out last year, and to her fiancée, Jesseca Dupart, someone who “made me really wanna not care about what anybody has to say”.
The twice-Grammy nominated musician, who has been a hip-hop mainstay since the 1990s, came out in a moving Instagram post March last year.
Sharing her relationship with Dupart, CEO of Kaleidoscope Hair Products, for the first time, she thanked her for buying her a $200,000 Bentley for her birthday.
“It’s so overwhelming that often I find myself in a daze hoping to never get pinched to see if it’s real so I can live in this dream forever,” Da Brat wrote in the caption.
Speaking to TMZ, Dupart said that when the pair first got into a relationship in 2019 she didn’t expect any backlash in the long run.
“I didn’t necessarily think that in the hip-hop industry at this point in 2019 that it was something that had to be hidden,” she said.
“The reason why she was able to live her life was because it’s almost like, I’m not going to say way more accepting, but it’s more relaxed than what it was.”
A$AP Ferg calls DaBaby ‘ignorant’
DaBaby is among the latest to weigh in on DaBaby, along with A$AP Ferg, who admonished the 29-year-old for being “super ignorant”.
“Coming from the hood, there’s a lot of ignorant people,” he told The Daily Beast.
“The hood is very boxed-in, it’s a small community. A lot of people don’t know their power, you go on this big stage and you’re speaking to millions and zillions of people, making all of this money—that doesn’t change who you are mentally.”
DaBaby performs on stage during Rolling Loud at Hard Rock Stadium. (Rich Fury/Getty Images)
He suggested that DaBaby should be given a second chance.
“Sometimes you gotta bump your head real hard to know,” Ferg said. “I feel like this is a very humbling time for him.”
DaBaby has lost multiple gigs and brand deals as a result of his tirade at the Rolling Loud music festival, where he took aim at those living with HIV and queer men who “suck d**k”.
He has also been criticised by venerable music artists such as Elton John ,Madonna, Miley Cyrus and his former collaborator Dua Lipa.
