The rapper previewed a diss track against the Black Entertainment Network on Tuesday.
Lil Nas X has doubled down on his war against the Black community’s history of homophobia after he received zero nominations for the 2022 BET Awards, a show that will ironically be held during Pride Month.
“Fuck BET! Fuck BET! Fuck BET!” the rapper bopped in a song and video he previewed Tuesday on Twitter as he escalated a social media campaign dissing the network and its alleged bias against queer artists of color. The video raked in over a million views within 24 hours of being launched.
In a series of tweets, the rapper, who is an outspoken member of the LGBTQ+ community, railed against Black Entertainment Television and suggested his snub was a symptom of homophobia within Black spaces. He claimed the network refused to give him his artistic props—despite his accolades elsewhere in the industry—because he supposedly dampens the image of the masculine Black man.
“‘[I]ndustry baby’ is the 2nd longest running #1 song on the billboard rap charts of all time and didn’t get a single nomination,” Nas tweeted about his single featuring rapper Jack Harlow. (For the record, Jack Harlow, a white man, was nominated for BET’s Best Male Hip Hop Artist award.)
Nas’ “Industry Baby,” released in July 2021, was certified four times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 2022.
“[T]his not over no bet award,” Nas wrote in another tweet on Tuesday. “[T]his 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.”
Writing for the Los Angeles Times in 2019, music critic and author Gerrick Kennedy said hip hop’s “refusal to embrace anything queer has been a blemish on the genre for as long as it’s been around.”
“Rap culture has always been powered by unbridled machismo, and one would be hard pressed to not find a gay slur embedded in the lyrics of any of the genre’s most famous architects,” Kennedy wrote. “In fact, an entire lexicon dedicated to pointing out discomfort with gay men has permeated rap lyrics.”
Apparently, Lil Nas X feels that sentiment has not waned.
“Tyler, the Creator and Frank [Ocean] have been nominated idk,” a Twitter user commented under Nas’ thread, referencing two Black LGBTQ+ hip hop artists who have portrayed themselves as more masculine.
But Nas had an immediate rebuttal. “[L]ove frank and tyler to death,” he tweeted, “but can we admit queer men are more respected when they do less feminine things or am i making that up?”
In an email to The Daily Beast on Wednesday, Kennedy said queer sexuality is still treated as a taboo or a punchline—“and [Black] culture promotes, and encourages it.”
“Rap struggles profoundly because it is a genre that centers cishet male gaze,” he said. “Folks can point to Lil Nas X and Tyler the Creator and go ‘See, there is progress,’ which is true. But let either one of them rap about having sex with men and see where the conversation goes.”
‘Pose’ Isn’t Just Great TV. It’s Making History. 10S ACROSS THE BOARD Kevin Fallon
Lil Nas X, infamous for flashy outfits and for being upfront about his sexuality, had a slew of Twitter followers join his BET roast.
“Ask them why Pose never got a nod from BET,” said culture writer Steven Underwood, referencing the multiple Emmy Award-winning show that centered on 1980s and ’90s drag culture in New York City.