The GRAMMY winner has had a shaky past with the BET Awards.
After a series of fake promotional ads that promised BBLs and homophobic dogs for pre-saving his latest single, Lil Nas X has released his highly anticipated track featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again. "Late to Da Party" is the first drop from the musician's forthcoming second album, which he's been teasing fans with snippets of since his surprise return to social media after nearly four months of silence.
As Lil Nas X has become known for, the artist uses the video to mock his recent "feud" with the BET Awards. With YoungBoy Never Broke Again currently on house arrest, the Montero singer put his famous meme-making mastery and "the ancient power of video editing" to use in order to create the song's official video.
"I just put like three up in the top 10 / Now I don't need nobody, I just need these CCs on my body," Lil Nas X raps as he "travels" from his home to YoungBoy Never Broke Again against various greenscreen shots of a private jet, a convertible riding through the desert, and, eventually, the BET Awards stage. "Everything I do, b*tch, right or wrong, gon' make a profit / Read about it, I don't even gotta sing about it / I wake up with the money that you n***as dream about, uh."
Watch the video below.
On Thursday afternoon, Lil Nas X posted the cover image for the new single, which shows (presumably) him peeing on a BET Award in a toilet -- a reference to Kanye West's 2020 social media video of himself urinating on a GRAMMY.
In June, Lil Nas X called out the BET Awards for their lack of support of "Black excellence" after the network announced the nominations for this year's awards. In since-deleted tweets, the Montero artist vented his frustrations about being snubbed by the show for the second year in a row -- and on the first day of Pride Month and Black Music Month, too.
When asked why he believed his work deserved nominations, Lil Nas X pointed out the success of his debut album, which included three singles -- "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)," "That’s What I Want" and "Industry Baby" -- on the Billboard Top 10 chart and eight more in the Hot 100. The album went platinum in the United States, earned placements on a slew of year-end lists and earned various accolades, including five GRAMMY nominations.
"I feel like that should've helped me a bit," he noted.
In a final since-deleted tweet, the openly gay artist explained his frustrations, explaining that it was less about his lack of nominations and more about what he feels is a lack of acceptance from his own community.
"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 pretend we are invisible," he wrote.
BET responded to Lil Nas X with a statement saying that they not only love the rapper, but have showcased "his extraordinary talent and creativity" twice on their show, once at the BET Awards in 2019 and again in 2021.
"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 explained in a statement. "At BET, we are passionate advocates for the wonderful diversity that exists within our community. We are committed to using all of our platforms to provide visibility and inclusion for all of the many intersections of the Black community."
Lil Nas X responded to the statement, saying, "These are literally just buzz words placed together."
Obviously, the musician had another point to make.
Lil Nas X first teased fans with his new music in March, taking to Twitter to share two screenshots of songs from his "almost finished" new album -- including "Late to the Party" and a single called "Down Souf Hoes" featuring ultimate material gorl Saucy Santana.
He also dropped two samples of his new music, a song titled "Lean on My Body" and an untitled track that he asked fans whom he should get to feature.
After BET's statement was released, ET spoke with him on the red carpet at the 2022 Songwriters Hall of Fame gala in New York City where he was honored with the Hal David Starlight Award, which honors young songwriters impacting the music industry with original songs.
"I think we have a long way to go in some places," Lil Nas X told ET, "but I feel like the world is definitely trying its best to change in many ways."
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