Rapper DaBaby – attending the Green Carpet of the 2019 BET Hip-Hop Awards on October 5th 2019 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, in Atlanta Georgia – USA. Jamie Lamor Thompson / Shutterstock.com
Tuesday, November 3rd was a grief-stricken day for DaBaby, a rapper that rose to prominence with “Suge.” Glenn Johnson, DaBaby’s older brother, reportedly died from a gunshot wound in Charlotte, North Carolina. Johnson was 34 years old and is survived by one song and three daughters. Prior to Glenn’s body being found in a parking lot off Mallard Creek Church Road, he had posted an unsettling video of himself upset and using expletives, mentioning he had been wronged in the past. In the video, Glenn was crying and had a gun with him. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department” shared that officers responded to a call at about 1:39pm and found Glenn sustaining a gunshot wound upon arrival.
The Ohio-born DaBaby, legally Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, rose to fame with his collaboration with Roddy Rich titled “Rockstar.” The song rose to #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and stayed on the chart for 28 long weeks. DaBaby also received recognition by his appearance at the 2020 BET Awards. There, he creatively designed the performance to include an actor portraying a police officer placing a knee on his neck, a not-so-subtle allusion to George Floyd’s death during an incident with Minneapolis police.
Following the grim news of his brother’s death, DaBaby did not respond to reports but posted tributes on his Instagram account, such as writing “LONG LIVE MY BROTHER” accompanied by a black heart and dove emojis. He also later posted an Instagram story with “Kirk” album lyrics, “My brother be thinkin’ that we don’t, love him and let him struggle like, we ain’t family. Like I won’t give up all I got to se you happy.” Another story posted on November 4th was a message from the rapper to his followers to “check on ya people” and to see how loved ones are doing.
We wandered the site with busloads of other tourists, yet strangely the place did not seem crowded. I’m not sure if it was the sheer size of the place, or whether the masses congregated in one area and didn’t venture far from the main church, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed by tourists in the monastery.
Glenn Johnson’s suicide comes on the week that DaBaby was using his influencing power to encourage more voters in Charlotte, North Carolina. The entertainer posted on Instagram a call to action for voters to go to the polls on Election Day, with the added incentive of a free ride on Lyft using his code “VOTEWITHDABABY.” He, himself, visited 10 different voting locations around Charlotte on Election Day. DaBaby, in a press release, mentioned that the current political climate and situation around the world led him to inspire his community as it is a “necessity to get my people involved.” This also comes on the heels of DaBaby’s public reflection on Twitter of the loss of his father. The singer’s father had passed away in 2019 quite suddenly and has indicated a disconnect of emotion due to that. “All that sh*t I accomplished in 2019, all the records broke all the history I made, I ain’t feel none of that sh*t.”
DaBaby began his own imprint label in 2019, called Billion Dollar Baby Entertainment. The inexhaustible performer also owns Billion Dollar Baby Clothing. To date, the album “Kick” contained a song titled “Suge” that led to two Grammy nominations in 2020. DaBaby is the seventh act to have at least 3 songs in the top six of the Billboard Hot 100 chart simultaneously, with “Rockstar,” “Whats Poppin,” and “For the Night.”
