Lil Nas X’s performance at the BET Awards was one of the year’s most notable music moments, mainly because of his on-stage kiss with one of his male dancers. In a new interview with Out, he spoke about the moment, admitting that he was hesitant about doing it at first.
He said:
“Going to this place with all these overly masculine rappers and you’re finna be in there throwing a little ass every now and then, touching on dudes and hugging them and kissing them… at some points I was like, ‘Should I even do this? I don’t feel like they’re going to love me like that.’ […]
Mentally, it’s really draining and straining sometimes; The pressure of living your entire life knowing the identity of what a rapper is supposed to be, what rappers [are supposed to] do, and going out there in front of all these people, it’s terrifying. [The BET performance] was like jumping in a lake full of sharks and piranhas — and I’ve had to do that so many times within these last three years. Even coming out, that was terrifying. When I put on the costume of Nicki [Minaj, for Halloween]: terrifying.”
He also spoke about his experience with homosexuality as a kid, saying, “Growing up in the Atlanta area, I [saw] a lot of microaggressions towards homosexuality. Little things like going into an IHOP and hearing one of your family members say, ‘Look at those f****ts’ to two people eating, or even just a small [statement like], ‘Boys don’t cry.’ Little sh*t like living in the hood, not being super into sports, and then having to go outside and pretend that I was.”
Of all the standout performances at this year’s BET Awards, one of the most surprising and impressive was Tyler The Creator’s — not just because of the scale and production, but also because BET was the last place you’d catch Tyler The Creator during Odd Future’s precipitous rise. In fact, the crew used to rail against the network, among other outlets, as an example of the establishment that didn’t accept them.
Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20, though. In a new interview with Complex, Tyler explained how the mockery was a “defensive mechanism” that allowed him to pre-emptively reject outlets that he thought might reject him. “I was so hype to perform at the BET Awards,” he admitted. “I just never felt like my style of music would ever have been, not even appreciated, but allowed on there. And because of that, I would mock it.”
He continued, “It was like a defense mechanism because I felt like I wasn’t accepted by that audience. But when they asked me this year, man I was enthralled. I was so happy.” He also explained the deeper meaning BET holds for him, recalling, “That channel taught me how to rap. It taught me about just all the stuff I know.”
He also breaks down why he hates making merch, why he just got into watches, and explains his creative process behind the hilarious Converse ad he just directed featuring Tim Meadows, Bill Walton, and Vince Staples.
During last month’s BET Awards, some fans on Twitter expressed confusion at the presence of Jack Harlow at the ceremony and his nominations, as Harlow isn’t Black despite his participation in what he acknowledges is a traditionally Black genre. He addressed the debate in a new interview with Yahoo!, saying, “I feel blessed to have a voice in this period because, one, I’m not a street artist, and two, I’m not Black. The only thing keeping me here right now is that level of authenticity, of being myself.”
Harlow, who was nominated for Best New Artist, Best Male Hip-Hop Artist, and Best Song for his “What’s Poppin” remix featuring DaBaby, Tory Lanez, and Lil Wayne, appears to take in stride both the light backlash against him and the cultural shift that led up to it. He compared the modern era to the blog rap era when artists like Mac Miller and Asher Roth were seemingly being accepted into hip-hop spaces more readily than some of their predecessors. Although white rappers have always flourished economically, not all of them appeared at the BET Awards or received nominations.
“All of this stuff was coming into the fold and it had this energy surrounding it of, ‘We’re letting the white kids come to the party. We’re all in this together,’” Harlow said. However, in conversations with his fellow Kentuckian Nemo Achida, he notes that since the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, some Black folks have expressed a desire to close ranks. “He feels like the country going into these new civil rights moments almost shifted away from, ‘Let’s have the white boy at the party,’” he noted of his friend’s observation. “It became less about let’s all be diverse together and turned back into hip-hop being, ‘It needs to be a Black genre.’”
He accepts this new state of affairs philosophically, saying, “That’s just been the natural transformation of things, I think,” and even agrees that as a participant in a Black genre, he has a responsibility to show up for Black people. “The things I was doing last summer, any fans who didn’t feel like criticizing the police or were on the other side of things, I was going to weed them out. That could have been a moment for them to no longer be fans. But what is important is that I lead by example for all the white kids looking at me. This is what you do. You don’t just enjoy Black culture. You stand up next to Black people in a time of need.”
On Sunday, Lil Nas X’s BET Awards performance of his recent hit “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” set social media abuzz with its racy final shot, which evoked comparisons to Madonna’s similar act at the 2003 MTV VMAs from many sources — including Madonna herself. However, Madonna’s lighthearted reminder to fans about Nas’ inspiration wasn’t taken in the spirit in which it was intended by many fans, prompting Nas to put in his two cents on the situation.
In the wake of the awards show kerfuffle, Madonna chimed in on Instagram to post a side-by-side photo comparison of her three-way kiss with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and Nas’ make-out session with one of his backup dancers, including the tongue-in-cheek caption #diditfirst. Naturally, fans on social media came to Nas’ defense, trolling Madonna for what they saw as stepping on Nas’ moment.
However, Nas, replying to PopCrave’s post about Madonna’s seemingly petty reaction, subtly reminded fans that there’s often more going on behind-the-scenes than they know. “Me and Madonna are friends,” he wrote. “It’s just a joke.”
Saweetie‘s only been split up from Quavo for about three months, but fans already see a new rap beau in her future. Jack Harlow, who featured on Saweetie’s “Tap In” remix last year, was caught on camera playfully interrupting her interview on the BET Awards red carpet to introduce himself — and because the interview in question was for The Shade Room, you know it caught the attention of exactly the fans who love shipping celebrities almost as much as sipping the spilled tea from their relationship drama.
During the interview, in which Saweetie was asked to “step into The Shade Room,” Harlow can be seen walking past in the background before pulling a smooth 180 and popping into the shot to say, “Hi, Saweetie.” While shaking hands, Saweetie notices that Jack seems to be the one shaking… which he denies before slinking off to the award show. When asked by the host whether that was Jack shooting his shot, Saweetie betrayed a woeful misunderstanding of the outlet interviewing her, warning her, “I don’t know, but y’all better not be messy with this sh*t.” Uhhh…. Saweetie? IT’S THE SHADE ROOM. You already know what’s going to happen!
Lemme find out Jack Harlow tryna find out about Saweetie!! He was real smooth with it too pic.twitter.com/4rFNLzx8cO
Sure enough, once the video migrated to Twitter, the reactions came rolling in, sending both artists’ names straight to the trending topics (where they’ve been quite comfortable for months, especially after Sunday’s BET Awards, where Harlow’s presence was questioned and fans thirsted over Saweetie’s dad). While some fans seemed quite keen on the idea of a love connection between the two hitmakers, others thought Saweetie could do better (not Jack though… sorry, Jack). Check out the best responses below.
New York rap veteran Ma$e is big mad right now. The hip-hop veteran has stepped forward to air out his problem with the 2021 BET Awards and publicly shared his disgust in the annual ceremony. Ma$e Blows Up On The 2021 BET Awards Mason hit up his Instagram page and didn’t hold back on ripping […]
The latest target of users trolling on social media is Coi Leray, the breakout artist who spent the last two years building a buzz before landing a huge hit with “No More Parties” earlier this year and becoming a 2021 XXL Freshman. Commenters have compared her to a boy in the past, and today, her name is trending on Twitter in light of her appearance at the BET Awards, where she wore a pair of baggy pants with a bikini top, a look that has become something of a trademark for the artist, who seemingly loves to embrace her shape and show off a lot of skin (her twerking videos get nearly as much attention as her music).
The negative attention prompted her to wonder at the fascination with her shape, tweeting, “Is there a certain way I’m supposed to look? Help me understand.” She then questioned, “In the Bible is it a Sin to be thin?”
She also pointed out the hypocrisy inherent in these comments, subtly imploring empathy for women from those commenters, saying, “I hope all yall mothers got beach bodies.”
A quick look at the Coi Leray trend on Twitter sees plenty of users echoing her sentiment, decrying the abusive commentary surrounding her and other women’s bodies in the music industry.
the way yall *continuously* compare coi leray’s body to a boy/man…….and then wanna get on here and question why 19 year olds are getting BBLs and why the airport is packed with women fresh off the table….the call is coming from inside the house. pic.twitter.com/7f6PRyBEoy
I think the 72 hour 180 from “love whatever body you’re in” to “coi leray built like a boy” is proof in how performative a lot of y’all’s interests are in actually protecting Black women
At first the Coi Leray jokes were arite. But now y’all muttin it. Then y’all wonder why the BBL conversation started to trend. But y’all gone act slow and pretend like y’all have women’s best interest at heart when discussing these things on the bird app…….k pic.twitter.com/qUBNivNFn8
So long as social media gives a platform to every Tom, Dick, and Harry to share their worst opinions (and continues to reward them with engagement), it seems unlikely that there will ever be much change on that front. However, Coi’s post, and the current conversation, highlight the problem, and spreading awareness is the first step to resolving it.
The 2021 BET Awards were, as usual, full of surprises, with enough moments that lit up social media to forgive the at-times seemingly slapdash and slightly overlong production (going to commercial during performances should simply not be a thing, ever, especially in a show that ran almost four hours). Whether those moments prompted wig removals, like Jazmine Sullivan’s virtuoso vocal performance of “On It” with Ari Lennox, or roasting, like DaBaby’s bursting-at-the-seams, off-sync rendition of “Ball If I Want To,” BET put on a show worth talking about, pulling its fair share of online buzz even amid an NBA conference finals game with lots of dynamite moments of its own.
With so much chatter throughout the show, though, there will still a few moments that rose above the rest, causing more than just a stir. Instead, they felt more like culture-shifting occurrences, whose residual effects will ripple outward like waves in a pond when a stone breaks the surface. These may end up being the ones that inspire retrospectives as we look back on them as the inciting incidents for huge changes in the way things are. Here are the three biggest moments of the 2021 BET Awards.
Cardi B Announces Her Pregnancy
Joining Migos to perform their Culture III standouts “Straightenin‘” and “Type Sh*t,” Cardi B pulled another pregnancy reveal for the ages, walking out midway through the performance in a rhinestone-studded bodysuit with a sheer midriff to show off her belly. The crowd pop when she does says everything that needs to be said; Cardi is already helping to carve out a new status quo for mothers in entertainment, but adding another child to the mix makes things even more interesting. It’s one thing to be a working artist while pregnant, it’s another to keep working when you have a child, but it’s an another-other thing entirely to get pregnant again, keep working, and still outwork the dudes — including the one who helped make all these kids in the first place.
Lil Nas X Remembers The Times — And Makes Out With One Of His Dancers
When Lil Nas popped out in dazzling golden ancient Egypt-inspired regalia to perform “Montero,” it didn’t take long for Twitter to draw comparisons to Michael Jackson’s 1991 music video for “Remember The Times.” After all, that was the theme for Mike’s video, which despite being way before Nas’ time, is such a fixture of Black culture that I’m sure he’d been exposed to it about 100 times before he hit puberty. So when he broke out into the iconic choreography from that video with his dancers, a thrill of satisfaction shot through viewers’ timelines — then transformed when he called back to another legendary award show moment. In 2003, Madonna, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera made history with a same-sex kiss at the MTV VMAs, solidifying their status as queer icons. I imagine we’ll look back on Nas’ kiss with his dancer the same way, as a watershed moment of representation. Happy Pride!
Megan Thee Stallion Refuses(?) To Perform Alongside DaBaby
This one’s more of a developing situation, but viewers couldn’t help but note that despite their long string of collaborative hits together — including DJ Khaled’s “I Did It,” which they performed last night — Megan Thee Stallion and DaBaby’s relationship seems to have strained to the point where at least one of them won’t share a stage with the other. While there could be any number of reasons why Meg slunk off stage after finishing her verse for “I Did It” without joining the group shot at the end (which included DaBaby, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, and HER), considering their recent social media spat, which resulted in Meg unfollowing DaBaby across platforms, it’s almost assured we haven’t seen the end of this saga. One or the other may soon be called upon to address the rather obvious moment — in which case, another round of reactions wouldn’t be out of the question.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Yesterday’s BET Awards ceremony was full of memorable moments, but Lil Nas X delivered one of the most notable with his performance of “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” He ended the performance by kissing one of his male backing dancers, and while the response to the moment was largely positive, there was still inevitable backlash, at which the rapper promptly clapped back.
One Twitter user referenced the performance’s aesthetic theme and wrote, “DONT USE AFRICAN CULTURE FOR SH*TS LIKE THIS!!!!!!! RESPECT OUR ANCESTORS.” Nas replied, “y’all really like to pretend homosexuality didn’t exist in african culture.”
y’all really like to pretend homosexuality didn’t exist in african culture https://t.co/mGmah0CbP9
Indeed, a 2015 column from The Guardian cites numerous examples of homosexuality in African culture, from relevant words in local languages to Mwanga II, the king of Buganda from 1884 to 1888 who “was openly gay and faced no hate from his subjects until white men brought the Christian church and its condemnation.”
Elsewhere, another tweeter shared some criticism of the rapper’s red carpet dress, writing, “I’m sure he was paid a million dollars to wear this nonsense. This will cause other little boys that admire him to dress this way for free and I hate seeing men emasculated.” An unbothered Nas responded, “we causing the emasculation of men all 2021.”
It was Method Man who kicked off the the DMX tribute on the 2021 BET Awards, rapping an acapella rendition of one of DMX’s most beloved verses. Then, Griselda Records took the stage to perform a snippet of their new song with DMX, “Hood Blues,” before a succession of X’s contemporaries and admirers, including actor Michael K. Williams, Busta Rhymes, and his own Ruff Ryders crew, including Jadakiss of The LOX, channeled his gritty energy to perform some of his biggest hits like “Ruff Ryders Anthem” and “Party Up.”
DMX passed away earlier this year after an accidental overdose. He was in a coma for a week, during which his contemporaries and fans in the hip-hop world shared an outpouring of well-wishes. Eventually, after he’d passed, it was announced that Def Jam, the label where he’d released groundbreaking classics like It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot, Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood, and And Then There Was X…, put out his posthumous album Exodus, which was named for his son.
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