Following the industry-wide removal of DaBaby from music festival lineups around the world, the music industry has officially switched gears in its response to the KIRK rapper’s recent homophobic comments. Now, in addition to the festival cancellations, DaBaby will also feel the weight of his actions by experiencing a massive reduction in radio play.
According to Billboard, radio programmers like Audacy have made the decision to remove DaBaby and Dua Lipa’s song “Levitating” from the airwaves “in light of [his] homophobic statements.”
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The Dua Lipa and DaBaby collaboration was released last August, but the track has remained popular well into 2021. However, Billboard reports that “Levitating” has started to take a hit following DaBaby’s controversial Rolling Loud set last month, as the percentage of radio stations that aired the song has dropped from 70.2% to 49.5% over the past 10 days. Many stations across the country have since reverted back to playing the original version of “Levitating” that only featured Dua Lipa.
While data proves that radio stations and streaming playlist curators have made the effort to stop promoting the DaBaby-assisted version of “Levitating,” the track still sits at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. According to Uproxx, if the original version of “Levitating” does end up becoming the most prominent version of the song in terms of charting activity, it is possible for DaBaby’s credit to be removed from the song as it appears on the Hot 100 and other charts.