Lil Nas X, who received zero BET Awards nominations for this year’s show, escalated his flame war against BET by previewing a diss track in a Twitter video on Tuesday in which he rapped, “F— BET,” and continually flipped the bird.
In a response Tuesday night, the network said “we love Lil Nas X,” but explained that no one at BET was involved in voting for the awards. Read more about that here.
When the awards were announced on June 1, the “Industry Baby” rapper, who is openly gay, tweeted in a thread he later deleted, “I just feel like black gay ppl have to fight to be seen in this world and even when we make it to the top, mfs try to pretend we are invisible.”
In the video, he references the fact that three of the songs from his Grammy-nominated debut album “Montero” landed on Billboard’s Top 10 list after it was released in September: “Look at how I top s—/I just put like three up in the top 10.”
Lil Nas X performed at the BET Awards in 2019 and 2021 — before and after he came out in June 2019 — but there’s little chance he’ll appear at this year’s ceremony, which will be held on Sunday, June 26. His onstage kiss with a male backup dancer at the 2021 show was met with outrage in some quarters, with the hip-hop star having to defend himself from critics on social media.
The “Old Town Road” singer has been the target of homophobic rants from rappers including Boosie Badazz, and scandalized conservative folks in the March 2021 video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” in which he gives Satan a lap dance.
In May, the LGBTQ organization GLAAD named him “Outstanding Music Artist” of the year. He’s also received support from country stars Dolly Parton, who approved his cover of her classic “Jolene,” and Billy Ray Cyrus, who rerecorded an “Old Town Road” remix with him to make the track “country” enough to land on the charts.
