DaBaby Reflects On Personal Growth: 'It's a Learning Process'
DaBaby is a work in progress.
The rapper is opening up about the controversy that has surrounded his life and career, including his July 2021 performance at Rolling Loud Miami where he made homophobic remarks and spread harmful misinformation about HIV/AIDS.
While promoting his joint album with NBA YoungBoy, Better Than You, DaBaby stopped by SiriusXM this week where he reflected on his personal growth over the past year.
“I grow every day, but, above all, I’m just more knowledgeable about the tolerance of the business I’m in,” he told Mina Say What. “It’s a learning process… You know, being an artist, 24/7 full time. Not only that, like, I was an artist at the highest level. Like I made it to the highest level of this shit. So it’s like you get the adjustments that you gotta make, just like becoming a grown ass man in life.”
DaBaby apologized for his offensive remarks (and later retracted it), but the backlash led to his removal from several festival lineups, while artists including his “Levitating” collaborator Dua Lipa spoke out against him.
He admits that he’s had to make adjustments in the past year. “I had no choice,” he said. “But that’s what I do. I adapt, I adapt by all means under any circumstance, I adapt to whatever. Wherever I go, life is life.”
DaBaby’s personal life has often played out on social media, including his contentious relationship with DaniLeigh, the mother of his child, and his recent altercation with the singer’s brother at a bowling alley. But he won’t apologize for defending himself.
“As a human, I got the urge to defend myself every single time,” he said. “When it leans towards like personal shit, like close to affecting the food that’s put on my daughter’s table … Or the people around me, or you know, businesses that I’m affiliated to—I really don’t. I can give two fu**s about it, but like when it touch personal places, ’cause that’s the shit I really do care about… That’s when, you gonna see me, motherfu**ers gon’ have to hold my tongue. They gonna have to come snatch that motherfu**er out of my mouth, it’s gonna get like that. ‘Cause I’m human.”
However, he’s learned to accept the circumstances. “But other than that, you know what I mean? It really ain’t about nothing. That’s what come with the territory. Absolutely. Life is life.”
One year after his controversial performance, DaBaby is set to make his return to the Rolling Loud Miami stage. He will perform at the festival in July alongside headliners Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, and Future.