"He broke his ribs frl?" — Internet reacts as Destroy Lonely fan stage dive video goes viral, sparks backlash

American singer and rapper Destroy Lonely is currently trending after a video of him pushing a young fan off stage went viral. The clip shows the 15-year-old boy named Nicholas jump off the podium after the artist seemingly encouraged him to do so at the Beach, Please! Festival in Romania over the weekend.

When the fan hesitated, the No Stylist hitmaker was seen giving him a nudge as Nicholas’ torso hit a metal barricade, nearly three meters away. According to local outlet Adevarul and Hot New Hip Hop, the teenager suffered a lung contusion, liver damage, and kidney injury from the fall and had to be hospitalized.

In the wake of the now-viral video and report, Destroy Lonely, whose real name is Bobby Wardell Sandimanie III, is facing online backlash. For instance, X user @Gloryannt commented on music influencer @Lidestywurld’s repost of the video:

Ant ✩

@Gloryannt

LINK

he broke his ribs frl ?

Many people joined the conversation and shared similar reactions on the platform:

“That artist can go ahead and hang that mic up, his career over,” a person wrote.

“I felt the hit gawdam, nawl he about to sue like hell and he not wrong,” another person wrote.

“This is a bad look...” a netizen wrote.

Others continued to call out Destroy Lonely:

“Lawsuits,” another netizen wrote.

“Not sure who Destroy Lonely is, but def living up to the name,” a user wrote.

Meanwhile, fans defended the rapper:

“It ain’t his fault the kid didn’t have more common sense to get a running start,” a fan wrote.

“Dude didn’t commit. That was all on him, to be honest. Get a running start,” wrote another.

Destroy Lonely hasn’t responded to the backlash at the time of writing.

---

More about the controversy surrounding Destroy Lonely

Hot New Hip Hop obtained the teenager’s quote, provided to the Romanian newspaper Adevarul. Nicholas, who was admitted to the intensive care unit at the Constanța County Hospital in Romania, explained that he wrote on his phone that he wanted to share the stage with the If Looks Could Kill emcee, who obliged.

However, when he was about to go back down, the rapper seemingly insisted that he dive off the stage, leading to the accident. Destroy Lonely reportedly told him:

“You're going to jump! I need you to jump back into the fans! Are you ready?”

The boy said the rapper "kept telling me to jump." However, he "backed away and told him clearly" that he didn't want to.

"And at some point, he grabbed my hoodie and kept pushing me. When I fell, I thought I was dying. I had no more air; I ran out of air. And I don't know. I thought that if I don't get help here, these will be my last moments," Nicholas continued,

Nicholas seemingly injured his lungs, liver, and kidneys and will need to stay in the hospital for several weeks. His mother told Adevarul that he apologized to her for attending the music festival. The woman reportedly plans to file an official complaint with local law enforcement against the Atlanta artist.

Hot New Hip Hop and Akademiks TV reported that the organizers called Destroy Lonely “irresponsible” and said they never wanted to work with him again.

---

Lone dropped his latest project, the extended play See U Soon </3 on June 5, 2025.