Lil Nas X has taken his feud with the BET Awards up a notch by slamming the organisation in his new single and music video.
The Old Town Road hitmaker called out the organisation, which celebrates African Americans in music, acting, sports and other fields of entertainment, earlier this month after he failed to receive any nominations for the annual awards show for the second year in a row.
He has now taken more shots at BET with his latest release, the NBA YoungBoy collaboration Late To Da Party.
Teasing the song on Thursday night, the Industry Baby singer posted a spoof of Star Wars’ iconic opening crawl – titled “Episode I: F**k BET” – to explain the story behind the upcoming video.
“NBA YOUNGBOY is on house arrest, trapped on the isolated planet HATU. The Brutal Empire of Terror (BET) has betrayed LIL NAS X, turning their back on him after using him for clout,” the crawl reads. “With the music industry in turmoil, the galaxy is looking for a hero. NAS must use the ancient power of VIDEO EDITING to free YB and defeat the evil BET before time runs out…”
The song opens with Lil Nas X chanting “F**k BET” and concludes with him crashing the awards and repeating the chant on the stage.
The 23-year-old continued to slam BET with the single’s cover art, which depicts a person urinating on a BET Award that has been put down the toilet. The image is a clear reference to Kanye West’s 2020 viral video in which he does the same to a Grammy.
Venting his frustrations about his awards snub, Lil Nas tweeted earlier this month, “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 (motherf**kers) try to pretend we are invisible (sic).”
BET responded in a statement, declaring they “love” the musician and “use all of our platforms to provide visibility and inclusion for all of the many intersections of the Black community.”
The 2022 BET Awards, hosted by Taraji P. Henson, will take place in Los Angeles on Sunday.