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Watch: DaBaby Alludes To Cancellation On Remake Of Wizkid’s “Essence”

By Michael Bamidele

01 September 2021   |   11:28 am

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In the face of cancellation, US rapper DaBaby shared a freestyle version of Wizkid's "Essence," on which he alluded to the recent "attack" on his career. Hours before he released the freestyle, which was accompanied video, DaBaby, 29, asked his fans on Instagram what they wanted next. "WHAT YALL WANT NEXT ? 👀 “ESSENCE” or…

DaBaby performs on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Sept. 30, 2019. | Image: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC

In the face of cancellation, US rapper DaBaby shared a freestyle version of Wizkid‘s “Essence,” on which he alluded to the recent “attack” on his career.

Hours before he released the freestyle, which was accompanied video, DaBaby, 29, asked his fans on Instagram what they wanted next. “WHAT YALL WANT NEXT ? 👀 “ESSENCE” or “WOCKESHA” ?? 🔥🤔 Y’all call the play we gone run it 🏃🏾‍♂️,” he wrote.

Adjudged to be the song of the summer, “Essence” by Wizkid currently sits at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and it continues to gather momentum.

On his “Essence” freestyle, DaBaby reminds those set out to cancel him that he doesn’t feel pressure by these issues and is self-assured that he will continue on his road of success.

“I just feel like, you know, when situations like this present themselves, man / And people try to, you know, assassinate your character, man / And assassinate who you are, man / And everything you put that hard work in for, man / Sometimes you gotta demonstrate, you know, that’s how I came here / And I don’t mind demonstratin’ / I don’t mind exercisin’, you dig what I’m sayin’?” DaBaby raps.

In July, DaBaby sparked outrage after making homophobic and factually inaccurate comments about sexually transmitted diseases during his performance at the Rolling Loud music festival. While onstage, the rapper asked every audience member to “put your cell phone light up”, apart from those who were HIV-positive or were gay men who had sex in car parks. He also made the false claim that HIV will “make you die in two or three weeks”.

The freestyle comes a week after DaBaby met virtually with leaders from several H.I.V. organizations. According to a press release, they “discussed HIV history and education, as well as the groups’ work in Black, LGBTQ, and faith communities.”

In a statement included with the press release, the leaders said, “DaBaby was genuinely engaged, apologized for the inaccurate and hurtful comments he made about people living with HIV, and received our personal stories and the truth about HIV and its impact on Black and LGBTQ communities with deep respect.”