The George Floyd protests have taken over the internet for over a month now. Even now, when we search for #blacklivesmatter, it will be seen as one of the most trending hashtags. Considering the seriousness of the issue, DaBaby brought up a remix version of his already popular song “Rockstar” to dedicate it to the ongoing protests. In the song, he mentioned the George Floyd incident and included some of his personal experiences with racism. Here are some details of the American rapper, which will help people learn more about his life for understanding the song better.
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DaBaby: The American Rapper
As popularly known by the name of DaBaby, Jonathan Lyndale Kirk was born in Ohio, US, in the year 1991. He belongs to Charlotte, North Carolina, and he is a singer, rapper, and songwriter by profession, which people might already know. DaBaby once said that he went to studies for the sake of his parents and never wanted to pursue that in his life. For the same reason, he left his education midway and went for his passion, music.
He started his music career in 2014, by working on several mixtapes. His first mixtape, “Nonfiction,” was released in 2015. Some of his early mixtapes are:
- God’s Work Mixtape Series
- Baby Talk Mixtape Series
- Back on My Baby Jesus Sh*t
- Billion Dollar Baby
Talking about his name, DaBaby was not the title he started with. The first choice was ‘Baby Jesus.’ However, the rapper said that the name became a distraction for him, and he eventually had to leave it.
For the initial four years of his career, DaBaby worked hard on his mixtapes and used to perform at clubs in North Carolina. There he met the current South Coast Music Group label’s president Arnold Taylor. At that time, even Taylor was working on his label, where he supported some of the famous southern rap stars.
They started working together after that, and DaBaby saw a rise in his career as he signed a distribution deal for his Blank Blank mixtape, with Roc Nation. With some further efforts, the duo made it to Interscope, and DaBaby signed a seven-figure recording deal with them. Under the same label’s guidance, he released his debut studio album, Baby on Baby, in the first quarter of 2019. After that, he made another deal with the South Coast Music Group for the same album, which caused a joint contract for both labels.
The signing with both labels proved beneficial for DaBaby as his first album made it to the 25th position on the Billboard 200. His following albums were a hit as they, too, made it to several BillBoards and collected a lot of money. DaBaby’s third studio album, Blame It on Baby, was a significant hit, and it included the song Rockstar, which is his highest-charting song.
Rockstar
Talking about Rockstar, the song was released a few months back in April. It was the second single of DaBaby from his third studio album. It has stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for over three weeks at the number one position. But that was just about the US. Rockstar also made its space in the top songs in several other places like the UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Ireland, etc.
On 12 June 2020, DaBaby came up with the remixed version of the song that he dedicated to the month’s heated issue, Black Live Matter. The issue was raised late in May when a black guy named George Floyd was choked to death by a white police officer. The protests urged everywhere in the world as people came out on streets to state the injustice that has happened.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, some people were not able to go for the physical protests. So they started protesting online through hashtag ‘#blacklivesmatter,’ and video calls happening around the globe. There was no section of the world that was left untouched by these protests. The smaller towns saw a few hundred people gathering, while the bigger cities had people who gathered in thousands.
Along with mentioning what happened with George Floyd, DaBaby also included some of his personal racist experiences in his song. He expressed that the police do injustice to the black people by thinking that they are criminals even without proper investigation. And it was only when DaBaby got successful that he was able to leave the problems a little behind.
Black Lives Matter Protests
Black people have always claimed to receive injustice from the system everywhere in the world. But after the recent George Floyd incident, the issue got heated up, and people wanted justice this time. Further, the protests were not just about black people. It was more about the discrimination that minor communities receive, and the systems that are framed in a way that deceives these communities.
And the protests did not fail. Here are some of the changes that were made under the influence of these protests.
- Controversial Statue Removal: There are several controversial statues around the globe that people were demanding to remove from years. And finally, after this incident, some of them were taken down.
- System Reformation: The government of a few placed informed the public that they will reform their systems to invest more in things that matter, like education and jobs. Instead of providing unnecessary funds to the police.
Along with this, even the police kneeled to accept their mistake in places like New York. All these things a little hope for improvement in the coming time.
Conclusion
Black Lives Matter has become the most discussed topic everywhere on the internet. The protests have gotten a little cold now, but the done changes have raised hope for improvement. Also, the effect would be even better when famous people like DaBaby will be promoting the injustice happening. His song Rockstar is still trending on the internet. The rapper has kept the original verse of Ricch and mixed some of the new wordings, making the song extremely interesting for all the listeners. Let’s see where it takes DaBaby with time.
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