DaBaby recreated George Floyd’s murder for an awards show, and it didn’t go over great
The video opens with a tight shot of DaBaby rapping with his face pressed against concrete — too tight to tell exactly what’s going on until the camera begins to pull back.
And then, several seconds in, it becomes clear: The Grammy-nominated hip-hop star, who in the past year has managed to become arguably the most famous entertainer ever to claim Charlotte as his hometown, is reenacting George Floyd’s murder while reciting the intro to the “Black Lives Matter Remix” of his hit song “Rockstar.”
The music video was unveiled on Sunday night during a virtual presentation of the 2020 BET Awards, which also featured an update of ’80s hip-hop classic “Fight the Power” by a reunited Public Enemy that featured a parade of featured guests plus new verses about Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
But the most-talked-about (and most controversial) moment of the night involved DaBaby and whether he went too far.
In the video, as the camera continues to pull back, the frame reveals a knee on the rapper’s neck, then that the knee belongs to a white man dressed as a police officer.
“Cops wanna pull me over, embarrass me,” DaBaby raps. “Abusin’ power, you never knew me, thought I was arrogant / As a juvenile, police pulled their guns like they scared of me.”
The reenactment goes on for about 45 seconds, then the rest of the music video mainly features DaBaby — and for his one verse, fellow rapper Roddy Rich — performing in front of a burning police cruiser while surrounded by protesters in face masks.
It ends with a young girl staring into the camera while clutching a sign that reads “More Love,” as audio plays of a young girl sobbing while delivering an impassioned speech.
“We are Black people, and we shouldn’t have to feel like this,” the voice cries. “We shouldn’t have to protest because y’all are treating us wrong. We do this because we need to. It’s a shame our fathers and mothers are killed and we can’t even see them anymore.”
That voice belongs to Zianna Oliphant, a then-9-year-old girl who was speaking at a Charlotte City Council meeting about police brutality in September 2016, in the wake of sometimes angry and violent demonstrations following a police officer’s fatally shooting of Keith Lamont Scott.
As the video aired during the BET Awards and in the hours that followed, a flood of fans on social media expressed outrage over what they felt was an exploitative reference to Floyd’s May 25 death.
DaBaby (née Jonathan Lyndale Kirk) rocketed to A-list-musician status in stunning fashion last year, despite being found guilty of a misdemeanor weapons charge in the wake of killing a man at a Huntersville Walmart in November 2018.
Virtually unknown before he made headlines for the shooting (which he has maintained was self-defense), his single “Suge” — which was released in April 2019 and marked the first single off his by Interscope Records-stamped album “Baby on Baby” — eventually was certified double-platinum.
It also spawned a music video that was shot in west Charlotte and features several moments that could allude to the Walmart shooting.
In June 2019, he won Best New Hip Hop Artist at the BET Awards; this past November, “Suge” was nominated for a pair of Grammys (Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance); and last December, he was “Saturday Night Live’s” featured musical guest on an episode hosted by Jennifer Lopez.
And yet his problems continued: Also in December, he failed to show up for a concert he was scheduled to headline at Bojangles’ Coliseum due, reportedly, to a broken-down private jet. Then, after performing a Dec. 23 makeup show, he was taken into custody by Charlotte police officers who say they found marijuana in his car.
DaBaby at the time told reporters that police officers had “absolutely” targeted him and “unlawfully searched” his car once he had finished performing.
‘Getting those voices heard’
Though detractors have complained that DaBaby had been slow to speak out about Black Lives Matter since the huge resurgence of the movement in the wake of Floyd’s death, the 28-year-old rapper did indeed take to social media six days after Floyd’s death and explained why he was taking his time.
“I always sit back and let the hype blow over before I give my insight so my perspective don’t get confused with all the ppl who only speak for likes & comments, or to save face, or maybe because their PR department, label, or management told em they should make a statement in order to preserve their integrity & not lose fans, business, support from the black community, etc,” tweeted the 28-year-old rapper, who has been vocal about his personal experiences with police violence.
More recently, on June 11, he released “Rockstar (BLM Remix)“ — the version featured on the BET Awards — and the following week appeared at a discussion called “Black Lives BEEN Mattered” held at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture in uptown Charlotte.
The panel included officials such as Mayor Vi Lyles, Charlotte City Council member Braxton Winston, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden, former Carolina Panther Thomas Davis and community organizer Kristie Puckett-Williams, statewide campaign for smart justice manager for the ACLU.
At the event, DaBaby refrained from recounting negative experiences with police, saying he wasn’t there to tell his story but rather to provide an outlet for community members and officials.
“Getting those voices heard, those statements heard, those opinions heard, in a room full of respected individuals, I just feel like it was important,” he said.
DaBaby closed the event by calling for similar discussions to happen more frequently.
“I want to end this by extending an offer to try to put something together routinely like this,” the rapper said. “Where we can bring blank notebook paper and pens and clipboards and try to move forward.”
“Rockstar” is currently No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. It’s been there for nine weeks, having peaked at No. 1 a week ago.
Oh, and not all of the reviews for his new music video were negative:
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 8:13 AM with the headline "DaBaby recreated George Floyd’s murder for an awards show, and it didn’t go over great."
