Hip Hop

DJ Akademiks Went Off On Festivals Canceling DaBaby, Calls Them “Hypocrites”

DJ Akademiks
DJ Akademiks

DaBaby’s name has been making headlines as he faced criticisms and consequences for his controversial, ‘homophobic and sexist’ comments at Rolling Loud Miami last month.

Things continue to crumble for the rapper, and yesterday (August 1), he was cut from yet another festival lineup, the Day N Vegas, and replaced with Roddy Rich.

DaBaby was also removed from the Lollapalooza 2021 lineup and the Governors Ball. While many social media users have been welcoming the moves to ‘cancel’ the rapper, DJ Akademiks has shared some perspectives on the situation.

In a string of tweets on Monday (August 2), DJ Akademiks referenced DaBaby’s response to the situation, blaming him for basically rubbing salt in the wound. “At this point though I don’t think its about his comments (him and others in Hip Hop have said worse things.. not justifying them)… however I think this is one of them last stands for cancel culture. He apologized but basically acted like he was 2 big to cancel.”

In a tweet some days ago, Dababy suggested that he was too famous for suffering any real consequences regarding his career and referred to himself as the “influence.

“The moment DaBaby said he was the ‘influence’ like.. that can’t be taken from you or your livelihood can’t be affected by others,” Akademiks said. “I knew they were finna have a hard on for him… can’t be arrogant and pompous when that cancel train come for u.. even if u think its overblown.”

The talk show host proceeded to tackle the ‘hypocrisy’ of the festivals taking DaBaby off the lineup for reasons claiming to support humanity while other artists on their lineup sing about things like murder.

“Every festival finna try to look good by taking him off their lineup.. until he comes back begging and pleading. Thats what cancel culture is these days.. its more bout bringing entertainers 2 their knees begging back for acceptance rather than letting u learn from ur mistake.”

He continued, “We’ve seen DSPs get involved in cancelling artists.. removal of those artists from all editorial playlists. It’s interesting to see festivals take the same route. The thing that always make it looks fake as f*** when anyone does this is its always selective… No uniformity.”

“It’s just weird how festivals are putting out these elaborate statements about how much they care about humanity and because of that can’t have da baby on their show for what he said. yet 90% of the artists they book.. music is about drugs and murder.. n its totally fine to them,” he ranted.

Akademiks ended his string of tweets with a call-to-action for organizers of festivals. “These companies gotta choose whether they are prioritizing the art of morality …because they all seem like hypocrites when they try to get on a high horse canceling artists…Hip Hop is a genre filled with imperfect stories. Why even fw it if u want saints,” he wrote.

DaBaby appears to have taken his advice as the rapper soon after posted another apology, quite different from his first.

DaBaby’s original comments saw him receiving backlash from a slew of celebrities, including Dua Lipa, Amber Rose, Madonna, Questlove, and Elton John, among others.