DaBaby explains JoJo Siwa lyric after fan backlash: ‘Don’t let them trick you’

Fans mistakenly believed rapper was attacking the popular YouTube star

DaBaby has been forced to explain his lyrics about JoJo Siwa after his mention of the popular YouTube entertainer in his “Beatbox” freestyle managed to rile up her fans.

Siwa began trending on social media after it transpired that he appeared to call her a “bitch” during the track.

The offending lyric goes: “N***a you a bitch/ JoJo Siwa, bitch/ She let the wrong n***a get rich.”

Hundreds of Siwa’s fans consequently shared their confusion and anger on social media, questioning why DaBaby, real name Jonathan Kirk, appeared to be going after the 17-year-old.

However, the lyric seems more likely an example of wordplay, with DaBaby shortening his birth name from Jonathan to “JoJo” then using “Siwa” as “see why”.

DaBaby appeared to blame social media itself for the uproar, in a tweet posted late on 21 February.

“I love Twitter bruh,” he posted with a cry-laughing emoji.

In a direct shoutout to Siwa, he added: “My 3 year-old-princess is your number 1 fan. I bought her every product you have out. She think she you [sic].”

“Don’t let em trick you into thinking id ever have a problem with you,” he continued. “My word play just went over their heads.”

He concluded: “All love on my end shawty, Keep shinning! [sic]”

Hopefully explaining his pun to more confused fans, he replied to another Twitter user commenting: “I don’t ‘Siwa’ they be so mad either bae.”

On his Instagram Stories, DaBaby re-shared the tweet and added: “Y'all MFs sick lol. Y'all ok w/ that child being tricked into thinking I got a problem with her, WE F*** WIT YOU JOJO.”

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Last month, Siwa publicly came out as a member of the LGBT+ community.

In a video posted to her Instagram Stories, Siwa said of coming out: “Personally I have never, ever, ever been this happy before and it feels really awesome.”

When she was asked by a fan how she wanted to “label” herself, she said: “I have thought about this and the reason why I'm not ready to say this answer is because I don't really know this answer.”

“I think humans are awesome,” she added.

“I right now am super duper happy and I want to share everything with the world I really do but I also want to keep things in my life private until they're ready to be public.”