Rapper DaBaby recently had his New Orleans show canceled, which was most likely due to lackluster ticket sales.
The New York Post reported that the controversial singer wouldn’t perform at the Smoothie King Arena in New Orleans on Friday as initially planned. Ticketmaster’s listing for the concert was deactivated Tuesday and currently says, “Unfortunately, the Event Organizer has had to cancel your event.”
Concert promoters said they are working on putting together a replacement show with a new lineup that will “likely” still include DaBaby, whose real name is Jonathan Lyndale Kirk. Nola.com speculated that low ticket sales were to blame, which it deduced by checking the now-deactivated seating chart and seeing that only a few hundred seats were taken in the 14,000-capacity venue.
“DaBaby’s New Orleans show was pulled by the artist’s team due to the promoter being in breach of contract,” MAC Agency founder Andrew Lieber said in an emailed statement. “DaBaby will be back in New Orleans very soon to make it up to his fans.”
Promoter Greg Pulver of Clear Bizness Entertainment was vaguer about the reasons for canceling.
“We sincerely apologize that we must postpone the For The Culture Tour stop in New Orleans featuring DaBaby that was set to happen on September 2nd. The public information being released is false and we didn’t authorize anyone to announce the cancellation of this event,” he told Nola.com.
Responding to why the New Orleans stop was canceled, he said there were “a number of business reasons why we saw best to do that. We decided to postpone and that was in our best interest.”
DaBaby has become a controversial figure in the rap community. As The Daily Wire reported in August 2021, he was dropped from the Lollapalooza lineup and other scheduled appearances following a “homophobic rant” at Miami’s Rolling Loud Festival.
“If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases, that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cellphone lighter up,” DaBaby told the audience.
Multiple performers slammed DaBaby for spreading misinformation about AIDS. He later apologized saying, “I want to apologize to the LGBTQ+ community for the hurtful and triggering comments I made. Again, I apologize for my misinformed comments about HIV/AIDS and I know education on this is important.”
Before the AIDS controversy, DaBaby made headlines in 2018 for killing a 19-year-old in what was deemed self-defense. No charges were filed other than unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon.