Lil Nas X details his “painful and strained” relationship with Black Entertainment Television (BET) in a new interview with Rolling Stone. People might think that the biggest problem is that he was clearly snubbed by the network for their annual BET Awards which took place last night (June 26). However, it goes beyond that which might explain the young artist’s clear disses towards the TV station.
“My relationship with BET has been painful and strained for quite some time. It didn’t start with this year’s nominations like most people might think,” Lil Nas X said. “They did let me perform on their show last year, but only after [I gave] assurances that I was not a satanist or devil worshiper, and that my performance would be appropriate for their audience.”
In 2021, Lil Nas X took the stage to perform his smash hit ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ which included the same themes seen in the music video and a kiss to one of his backup dancers. This prompted a less-than-desired response from many viewers which Nas addressed in now-deleted tweets earlier this month as the BET Awards nominations were unveiled.
He tweeted: “This not over no BET award this is about the bigger problem of homophobia in the black community, y’all can sit and pretend all u want but imma risk it all for us.”
There is no denying that the snub seemed pretty obvious. Lil Nas X had some of the biggest songs of the last year as well as debut album Montero which reached the number two spot of the Billboard Hot 200 chart.
In a new song called ‘Late To Da Party’ out this past week, Nas starts the song chanting ‘Fuck BET!’ The artwork cover for the single shows a BET Award trophy inside a toilet being urinated on.
(Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for BET)