Lil Nas X calls out BET after no nominations despite topping charts

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Recently, some beef was laid on the grill between Lil Nas X and the BET Awards. The artist feels he has been snubbed after not receiving a single nomination for the  upcoming BET Awards. The nominees were announced on June 1 with the award show taking place June 26. 

This past year, Lil Nas X has had three songs reach No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100: “Montero (Call Me by Your Name),” “Industry Baby” (with Jack Harlow),  and “Thats What I Want”. Industry Baby became the 2nd longest running #1 song on the Billboard rap charts of all time.

Since the start of 2021 he has won 11 awards and been nominated for 52 in different award shows.

In a series of since deleted tweets Lil Nas X said:

“thank you bet awards. an outstanding zero nominations again. black excellence!” 

“idk maybe 3 of the biggest songs of last year & a critically acclaimed album. feel like that should’ve helped me a bit.”

“not even that, doesn’t even have to be me nominated. 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 presented we are invisible.”

BET responds to Lil Nas X

Lil Nas X recently responded to a fan on Twitter who asked why he was acting like this since he has a grammy.

“This is my point exactly how can I get acknowledged by the most acclaimed award show in the world and then not even just 1 nomination from my own people? Is that not crazy? Am I really tripping?”

On June 7, Lil Nas X posted on his social media a snippet of his upcoming song “Late to da party ft. NBA Youngboy” with the caption ‘F— BET’. The song starts with the artist singing f— BET multiple times as he lip syncs and flips off the camera. Lil Nas would also tweet out “this not over no bet award this is about the bigger problem homophobia in the black community, y’all can sit and pretend all u want but imma risk it all for us”.

BET would later release a statement saying “We love Lil Nas X. He was nominated for a Best New Artist BET Award in 2020, and we proudly showcased his extraordinary talent and creativity on the show twice: he performed “Old Town Road” with Billy Ray Cyrus at “BET Awards” 2019 and his “BET Awards” 2021 performance was a highlight of our show. No one cheered louder that night than BET. Unfortunately, this year, he was not nominated by BET’s Voting Academy, which is comprised of an esteemed group of nearly 500 entertainment professionals in the fields of music, television, film, digital marketing, sports journalism, public relations, influencers, and creative arts. No one from BET serves as a member of the Voting Academy.” BET would also go on to post a video on their Instagram highlighting moments of Lil Nas X at past BET Awards with the caption ‘This is bigger than the #BETAwards. This is real life and we will always rock with Lil Nas X and stand for our people.’