Rapper T.I. punched Chainsmokers’ Drew Taggart after the singer playfully kissed him on the cheek, but insists afterwards that it’s all “love”
T.I. defended DaBaby last year after he made offensive and inaccurate comments about HIV and AIDS during a show, along with other homophobic remarks (more on that below).
Toxic masculinity is alive and well, it would seem. Anyone surprised? Thought not.
Earlier this week there was an altercation between controversial tapper T.I. and Chainsmokers singer Drew Taggert, which the latter shared about in a social media post immediately after.
“T.I. just literally punched me in the face,” Taggart said in a clip shared to TikTok this week (August 16) as Chainsmokers were performing at a club alongside T.I.
“We’re in a vibe and I, like, gave him a kiss on the cheek. It was totally my fault,” he says in the clip, while Chainsmokers bandmate Alex Pall can be heard laughing in the background.
“He was like, ‘Don’t do that.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’ He pushed me off and I was like, ‘Alright, my bad,’” he said, with Pall adding that a member of T.I.’s crew approached him and said, “You need to get your boy.”
#ti punched #thechainsmokers DJ after he tried to kiss him
• @poetikflakko pic.twitter.com/lBLYuw5kkw
— No Jumper (@nojumper) August 17, 2022
“First of all, T.I.’s fully in the right here. I was feeling the vibes way too hard and I kissed T.I. on the cheek. And he punched me in the face for it! It’s like, fully fine,” Taggart said rather forgivingly.
Once word got out around social media, it had everyone talking and T.I. eventually responded to the clip, saying there’s “not much more to the story.”
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The majority of folk on social media offered support to Taggart, however some argued making the move without consent was inappropriate. One Twitter user wrote “BOUNDARIES!!! Can’t be kissing people without consent my boy, you know better! Lol.”
In July 2021, T.I. hit the headlines when for dragging Lil Nas X into a debate over DaBaby’s Rolling Loud Festival performance in Miami.
Appearing at the festival, DaBaby told the crowd: “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases that’ll make you die in two or three weeks, put your cellphone light up.”
Levitating collaborator Dua Lipa unfollowed him after the incident, also removing his verse from the track on some streaming services where it was top trending at the time. She also posted a message condemning his harmful actions, while Elton John, Madonna and Miley Cyrus were also among the names to call him out.
DaBaby subsequently doubled-down on his remarks despite huge backlash, later offering an apology – which was quietly deleted days after – only when he began to lose gigs and sponsorship deals.
Posting a video in support of DaBaby at the time, T.I. said: “For instance, the Lil Nas X shit. The performances and video, man I got a lot of respect for bruh because he had the courage to live his truth, but that shit ain’t for me… Just can’t look at it… And I don’t want my children seeing it, either,” he said at the time.
He went on to say: “If you have a Lil Nas X video, and him living his truth, you gone damn sure have people like DaBaby who are going to speak they truth. There ain’t nothing wrong with none of that. It ain’t got to be no hate, it’s all honesty.”
Since Lil Nas X had been dragged into the situation, it had a lot of industry artists then offering their opinion on both Nas and DaBaby for some time after.
Brooklyn rapper Uncle Murda released his annual ‘Rap Up’ song on in January 2022, which he begins saying: “Lil Nas X gon catch aids and die like Eazy E/Hope the LGBTQ don’t cancel me/Like they tryna stop DaBaby from gettin’ paid/When he was talkin’ bout how they be givin’ each other aids.”
In March 2021, attorney Tyrone A. Blackburn said more than 30 women contacted him accusing T.I. and his wife of “forced drugging, kidnapping, rape and intimidation” in at least two states, including California and Georgia. He claimed the allegations span more than 15 years, however a spokesperson for T.I. and Tiny denied the allegations.
In September it was revealed that the pair would not face charges in the case filed against them as prosecutors for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office found the allegations — in which a woman claims the couple drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2005 — has surpassed the statute of limitations, according to documents obtained by Page Six.
“Without the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence being evaluated, the case is declined due to expiration the Statute of Limitations,” the court record showed.
The statute of limitations in such cases is 10 years.
Some Chainsmokers’ Tiktok video below:
@thechainsmokersMy bad T.I. won’t happen again… unless?♬ original sound – The Chainsmokers