I have to admit, I absolutely love this. The media and pop culture created a monster in Lil Nas X, and now he can’t control it. I can’t think of a more appropriate narrative for 2022 than the BET Awards — which, of course, were created to include black artists — have been called out for a lack of inclusivity.
The BET Awards are Sunday (6-26) and Lil Nas X is pissed that he is not nominated for any awards. On June 1, when the nominations were announced, he tweeted “Thank you for your bet. Outstanding zero nominations again. Black excellence.” He later deleted the tweet as part of a series of letters complaining about his lack of a nomination, but posted a week later “Diss Tracking“Fuck BET” to social media. This is also how Lil Nas X started promoting the idea that he wasn’t bothered by not being nominated, but BET’s blatant homophobia that kept him from being considered for any awards in 2022 .
But it makes absolutely no sense. Why? Because Lil Nas X has been nominated and won a BET award in the past, and after he came out as gay.
Lil Nas X was nominated and won Single of the Year and Best Collaborative Duo at the 2019 BET Hip Hop Awards for her remix of “Old Town Road” with Billy Ray Cyrus or Group award. At the 2020 BET Awards, he was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Hip Hop New Artist. Then in 2021, he was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video and Influence Track for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”.
If you’ve been keeping track, that’s a total of six nominations, plus a total of two wins at the BET Awards and the BET Hip Hop Awards. Lil Nas X has also performed at the BET Awards several times. So when he said in his original statement, “Outstanding Zero Nominations again,”This is not correct.
Should we now believe that despite all these honors BET has awarded to Lil Nas X in the past, suddenly BET has decided to discriminate against someone they previously awarded just because he is gay? It seems very, very unbelievable, especially since organizations like BET are doing their best to recognize LGBT performers specifically and not vice versa, as they have done for Lil Nas X in the past. They specifically nominated him for his “Montero” video, where he simulates having sex with Satan. So if they had questions about his sexuality, it might have come up at that point, but it didn’t. They recognized it.
Maybe BET voters just think there are better artists and projects this time around. In a statement, BET said, “At BET, we are passionate about advocating for the wonderful diversity that exists in our community. We are committed to using all of our platforms to provide visibility and inclusion at all intersections of the black community.”
But of course, if you can’t do it well, just be a victim and the media will take your water and rarely question the validity of your claims. In fact, they’ll go straight to the fight on your behalf because it makes them appear knowledgeable in their constituency. At the same time, the situation does show the irony and pitfalls of the “wake up” agenda. You will never be awakened, and eventually the awakened thug will come to you, no matter how sober you happen to be yourself, including one of the most sober media entities in BET.
What does all this have to do with country music?Because this is a similar scam committed in 2018, when billboard Decided to remove “Old Town Road” from their country music charts after he was found to be deliberately manipulating the system and for some reason country music as a whole was accused of being racist. In fact, an entity that has anything to do with it—billboard– hardly any criticism or discussion surrounding the matter. Overall, it’s all imposed on country music.
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Similar to BET’s case, whenever people bring up Lil Nas X and how “Country” screwed him up, they don’t mention that the Country Music Association or the CMA actually nominated and ultimately awarded Lil Nas X (and Billy Ray Cyrus) for the 2019 “Old Town Road” annual music event. That’s right, Lil Nas X is a CMA Award winner, while Country Music Hall of Fame’s Marty Robbins and Tom T. Hall have never won one, future Hall of Famers Dwight Yoakam, Gene Watson and Rosanne Cash and a dozen others in high profile The country star has never won a game.
If there is any doubt that Lil Nas X is an honest broker, it should be dismissed with his dishonest and baseless attacks on the BET Awards. Is BET Awards a reputable organization? My guess is that like every awards organization, they may have corruption issues. But Lil Nas X has been a beneficiary of the system in the past and may be a beneficiary of the system in the future.
Of course, Lil Nas X’s praise for BET’s past has been both ungrateful (he later urinated on one of his BET awards) and self-serving in need of praise and acceptance from any awarding body. But it’s also possible that Lil Nas X is glad he wasn’t nominated because he could earn more miles from posing as a victim than possibly winning some awards. The story has been an entertainment media obsession for the better part of a month. Once again, this person drives the narrative because the media cannot think critically.
You really have to give Lil Nas X some credit. This guy is the ultimate troll, using captured media, using algorithms, and playing pop culture trends perfectly for his benefit. His music is little more than a meme, but he uses the medium to enrich himself with millions of dollars.
Maybe BET voters are finally starting to adjust to the reality of Lil Nas X and vote for real artists to make more meaningful contributions to black music. BET can still have its own problems, and country music certainly isn’t a vessel for virtue. But Lil Nas X’s criticism, or the media on his behalf, is the pinnacle of madness. Lil Nas X is exploiting irrational moments in our lives for financial wealth and attention, and no one will question him because they don’t want to be labelled homophobic. There is no doubt that he is a talented artist. A brilliant liar.