After two years of charming the internet with their public relationship and family dynamic, streamer and rapper DDG accused actress and singer Halle Bailey of keeping their son away from him, releasing a song on YouTube entitled “Don’t Take My Son.”
During their breakup in October 2024, he said he did not want to make the issue public but it was his last resort.
“I don’t like putting y’all in my business, but I don’t know what else to do,” he said. “But I know the internet moves people.”
In response to his public concern and disappointment, many of his fans spammed Bailey’s social media comments calling her out for being a “bad mother,” resulting in her turning off comments for multiple posts.
In the era of social media pregnancy announcements from celebrities, influencers and even family and friends, students are reflecting on relationship drama and the emergence of “baby mama culture.”
According to Statista, 40 percent of unmarried women in the U.S. who gave birth were unmarried in 2023, compared to 18.4 percent in 1980.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation reported that as of April 2024, more than 23 million children lived in a single-parent household, about one in every three children in America.
Household structure is linked with socioeconomic status with around 30 percent of single-parent households falling under the federal poverty level. This financial struggle results in other effects including living in less safe communities, food insecurity, low education scores and behavioral issues.
Mercedes Ebanks, associate professor for Howard’s Counseling Psychology doctoral program, said family dynamics and household structure are some of the foundations of human development.
“It’s the root in terms of bonding, values a person learns, relationship development, communication. It really is central to all of those aspects of development,” Ebanks said.
The increase of premarital childbirth is not only seen in the numbers but through social media and in daily life. Recently, many celebrities and influencers, like Naomi Osaka, Flo Milli, Coi Leray, Skai Jackson and Rihanna, announced their pregnancies while being unmarried.
Ebanks explained that this could be an effect of societal views on marriage and the traditional family shifting, causing “nontraditional” effects.
“Society also puts out a lot of negative images of families, whether it’s on social media, or in television shows, so society is changing. Marriage is a cornerstone of a relationship in terms of a significant marker, but society has started to devalue marriage,” Ebanks said.
Lauren Collins, a freshman human development major from Nashville, Tennessee, said she was disappointed and concerned about DDG’s behavior being damaging to the child’s mental health, especially when you’re growing up in the spotlight.
“Going on social media when you have a platform, the child has to grow up and then see all those things you say about their mother. Every child should have a great relationship with their mom and their dad,” Collins said.
She believes that social media is a big contributor to the popularization of “baby mamas” and specifically the drama that comes with having a child unmarried, especially because young girls look up to celebrities like Bailey.
Bailey has 9.3 million followers on Instagram and gets significantly more likes and comments on her posts that include Halo.
“we love a good mommy son duoooooo,” @daphiiii said on Instagram.
Another example is Jayda Cheaves, a social media influencer who has a child with rapper Lil Baby. Cheaves has over 8 million followers on Instagram and 4.7 million followers on TikTok. Her clothing brand has 553 thousand followers. Ari Fletcher, who has a child with rapper G Herbo, has 6 million followers on Instagram.
Cheaves and Fletcher’s lives are regularly hot topics of social media, specifically blogs like The Shade Room and HollywoodUnlocked. Posts featuring Cheaves’ 6-year old son, Loyal, and Fletcher’s 6-year old son, Yosohn, also go viral and regularly receive more likes than their usual content.
Trenton Noel, a second-year honors chemistry major from Little Rock, Arkansas, has heard many of his peers say they don’t want to get married and he agrees that the media is responsible.
“Online, things are more, liberal, a lot more loose, for lack of a better word. We’re losing that traditional mindset and in some ways that can be positive and in other ways negative, like broken families,” Noel said.
Noel is not shocked that DDG publicly addressed such private issues, he said it is unfortunately “par for the course” for someone who is on camera almost 24/7.
Collins points out the importance of knowing who you are getting into a relationship with, and being compatible with that person in order to co-parent effectively.
“Even if you’re getting pregnant after marriage, the relationship can still turn and that affects the child’s mental health. They need to pick their partners wisely,” Collins said.
Historically the title of “baby mama” has racial connotations associated with it.
According to The Root, the origin of the term ”baby mama,” is a “symptom of the birth of Ebonics.” Google Trends shows the phrase peaking in April of 2008, coinciding with the release of the film “Baby Mama,” signifying its entrance to the online world.
Morghan Langston, a junior journalism major from Teaneck, New Jersey, says the media perceives single mothers differently depending on race and that should be the larger concern.
“If you’re pretty much Black period, people are going to look at you crazy for having a kid. Especially when you aren’t married and you’re very young, they think that it’s the worst thing you could do in the world. But if it was a white woman, they’d be like, “Oh, you got this. This is your little bundle of joy, your reason to keep going,’” Langston said.
Langston said though destigmatizing unmarried relationships can add to the ongoing issue of unhealthy co-parenting, it is best to support parents who are making these decisions.
“Be there for the people, especially in your life, that need that kind of support, because you can’t do nothing once the baby’s there,” Langston said.
Copy edited by Anijah Franklin
