DaBaby ft. Roddy Ricch – ‘Rockstar’

15 May 2020

Neither of the two acts here are easy to like. Roddy Ricch faced charges of domestic violence earlier in 2020, though the charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence. In 2018 DaBaby shot a man, who later died, but pleaded self-defence and avoided serious charges. He also struck a woman in a nightclub in 2020, and somewhat apologised that the person he hit was a woman. He then made homophobic remarks and crass comments about people with HIV while on stage in 2021, and didn’t particularly apologise.

DaBaby’s real-life shooting incident puts the gangsta lore of his ‘Rockstar’ verses in questionable taste. The track itself has a strong hook in the chorus, and the minor-key acoustic guitar figure gives poignancy and lightness. And that’s where the story of ‘Rockstar’ would normally have ended. However, even while at number one in Ireland it took on a second life.

Along with the Covid pandemic and lockdown, the major world event of the first half of 2020 was the murder in Minneapolis on 26 May of George Floyd by a white police officer kneeling on his neck to restrain him, while he was handcuffed and struggling to breathe. The entire incident was filmed by a bystander, and soon everyone could see it online or on TV for themselves. The consequence of Floyd’s murder was a wave of Black Lives Matter protests and initiatives around the world. These included DaBaby releasing an updated version of ‘Rockstar’ in June 2020 with a new opening verse about his own experiences of police victimisation. Ricch joined him at the BET Awards that month to perform the new version with visuals referencing the mistreatment and murder of Floyd by police.

The second life of ‘Rockstar’ captures that brief and febrile moment in time, mostly during June 2020, when Black Lives Matter and the gesture of taking a knee seemed to make a real impact on mainstream white-dominated society. Pretty soon, though, the equivocation and the pushback began. All lives matter, said some people. Protest marches in a time of pandemic are irresponsible, said other people. Calling to defund the police is subversive, said even others. Corporate and mainstream solidarity for the principle of Black Lives Matter became watered down to generic anti-racism messages that even right-wing politicians and opinionators can live with, since they aren’t racist and wouldn’t dream of it, no sirree, but are simply “voicing legitimate concerns”. ‘Rockstar’ captured a moment, one where the potential for fairness and empathy and justice and equality and maybe even a modicum of systemic change was in the air, but that moment has passed.