Lil Nas X Claims BET Feud Didn't Start Over Recent Awards Snubs

Turns out there may be a little more to Lil Nas X’s feud with BET than we originally thought.

The “Montero” singer previously called the network out after notably receiving zero nominations for yesterday’s BET Awards, despite clearly being a major player and having real success with his first studio album. Part of that involved calling them out directly on Twitter, and later including a repetition of “f*ck BET” in the opening of his new song with NBA YoungBoy, “Late To Da Party (F*CK BET).”

Despite BET’s insistence that they love Lil Nas and their employees didn’t choose the nominees, he opened up to Rolling Stone about how his relationship with the network had been strained since his performance at the awards show last year.

“It didn’t start with this year’s nominations like most people might think,” he 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.”

Anonymous team members who work with Lil Nas also told the publication that the show demanded to know whether “elements of devil worship” would be included in his performance at the time and that after he kissed one of his male backup dancers on stage, they were told it was “really fucked up” for him to have done that. (A spokesperson for BET called all of these claims “simply untrue.”)

The revelations come as Lil Nas has just dropped a new music video imagining him crashing the BET Awards while singing the refrain of “fuck BET," making it clear his frustrations with the network aren't going away any time soon.

And though he was still absent from the actual BET Awards, “Industry Baby” collaborator Jack Harlow notably showed off his support by wearing a Lil Nas X t-shirt on the red carpet.