Miley Cyrus is extending an olive branch to DaBaby, an embattled rapper who recently came under fire for making homophobic comments about HIV, AIDS and the LGBTQ community.
On Wednesday, Cyrus posted a statement on her Instagram page with a caption that indicated she sent the rapper a private message.
"@DaBaby check your DMS - would love to talk and see how we can learn from each other and help be part of making a more just and understanding future!" Cyrus wrote.
“As a proud and loyal member of the LGBTQIA+ community, much of my life has been dedicated to encouraging love, acceptance, and open mindedness. The internet can fuel a lot of hate & anger and is the nucleus of cancel culture… but I believe it can also be a place filled with education, conversation, communication & connection," she continued. "It’s easier to cancel someone than to find forgiveness and compassion in ourselves or take the time to change hearts and minds. There’s no more room for division if we want to keep seeing progress! Knowledge is power! I know I still have so much to learn.”
In late July, DaBaby, 29, received widespread criticism after he made several comments about HIV, AIDS and the LGBTQ community during his show at Rolling Loud.
“If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two, three weeks, put your cellphone light up," he said during his July 25 performance. “All the lights went up, gay or straight. You wanna know why? Because even my gay fans don’t got f---ing AIDS, stupid a-- n-----s. They don’t got AIDS. My gay fans, they take care of themselves. They ain't going for that thing ... They ain’t no junkies on the street.”
The rapper then seemingly doubled down on his comments, releasing a video on July 28 he called “Giving What It’s Supposed To Give." The video features the line, “We like AIDS… we on your a--, b----, we won’t go away.”
Since his disparaging commentary, DaBaby has been dropped from Lollapalooza and iHeartRadio Music Festival. Celebrities, including his "Levitating" collaborator Dua Lipa, have also responded negatively to his anti-gay remarks.
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“I’m surprised and horrified at DaBaby’s comments,” Lipa shared on her Instagram Story. “I really don’t recognize this as the person I worked with. I know my fans know where my heart lies and that I stand 100% with the LGBTQ community. We need to come together to fight the stigma and ignorance around HIV/AIDS.”
Following backlash, DaBaby took to Instagram on August 2 to share a statement of his own.
“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 in a post, in which comments were disabled. "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. I appreciate the many people who came to me with kindness, who reached out to me privately to offer wisdom, education, and resources. That’s what I needed and it was received.”
