Meek Mill, Boosie Badazz Defend DaBaby Amid 'Blackball' Claims
Meek Mill and Boosie Badazz are coming to the defense of DaBaby.
It was reported that the embattled rapper is expected to sell 16,000 units of his latest album Baby On Baby 2, which is a far cry from the 124,000 first-week sales of his previous album, 2020’s Blame It on Baby.
In response to the low sales, DaBaby has claimed that he has been “blackballed” by the industry following his many controversies including his homophobic comments at Rolling Loud last year.
“Not bad for da BlackBalled Baby,” he commented on a report of his album projections.
DaBaby responds to criticism regarding low album sales for his latest project, “Baby On Baby 2.” Thoughts Roommates?! pic.twitter.com/hO9bgLbazf
— TheShadeRoom (@TheShadeRoom) September 29, 2022
Some of his peers seem to agree that he has been victimized. Meek Mill took to Twitter to side with DaBaby’s blackballing claim.
“They blatantly black balling da baby .. not my business but ima observer,” Meek tweeted.
They blatantly black balling da baby .. not my business but ima observer 👨🏾🔬
— MeekMill (@MeekMill) September 29, 2022
Boosie Badazz, who has shown support for DaBaby in the past, also weighed in and insinuated that DaBaby was being blackballed.
“Ain’t no way my ni**a @DaBabyDaBaby supposed to sell 16k after selling almost 150k his last first week,” he tweeted. “He one of the BIGGEST n this shit ‼️I DONT KNOW WHATS GOING ON BUT SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY GOING ON ‼️.”
Ain’t no way my nigga @DaBabyDaBaby supposed to sell 16k after selling almost 150k his last first week ‼️he one of the BIGGEST n this shit ‼️I DONT KNOW WHATS GOING ON BUT SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY GOING ON ‼️
— Boosie BadAzz (@BOOSIEOFFICIAL) September 29, 2022
But there were also many on social media who did not agree that the industry had turned its back on DaBaby, instead blaming him for his own downfall.
DaBaby not only has 30 million monthly listeners on Spotify, he’s the face of RapCaviar this week. He did this to himself.
— Spencer the MC (@_spencerthemc) September 29, 2022
Thank you dawg lmaoo that nigga pushed himself out the industry!
— FocusOnCreatingUrSuccess (@_FOCUSonthebeat) September 29, 2022
you dont think he doin it to himself?
— jordan 🕊 (@wcultr) September 29, 2022
y'all need to stop blaming everyone but him for his numbers. chris brown and nba youngboy are blackballed but they're not doing 13k first week lol his music is lackluster and repetitive + he went on a homophobic rant then doubled down on it like he did it to himself.
— 🫶🏽 (@THATBADRED) September 29, 2022
Despite the blackballing claims, DaBaby’s music was added to Spotify’s RapCaviar playlist and his photo was even featured as the cover image.
DJ Akademiks keeps telling me DaBaby is cancelled by DSPs but he has THREE songs (+ cover) on RapCaviar.
Also on the cover of another rap playlist with over 1 million followers & has multiple tracks on Apple Music playlists too.
The album is flopping because nobody is listening pic.twitter.com/ivi7XyQKHa
— SANCHO (Taylor's Version) (@blackpostmaione) September 28, 2022
Ebro Darden, who serves as Apple Music’s Global Editorial Head of Hip-Hop and R&B, weighed in on the debate over playlisting and how it doesn’t necessarily drive streams for every artist.
A radio station can play a song 100X a day, doesn’t mean people will buy an album or a concert ticket, or even stream that song.
A song can be 1st in a playlist, doesn’t mean the audience won’t skip it.
The platforms see what you play and what you skip.
Stop lying to urself
— Kojo Ebro Odogwu (@oldmanebro) September 29, 2022