Earlier this week, the BET Awards unveiled the list of nominations for its upcoming show later this month. Doja Cat led the way with six nominations in categories that include best female R&B/pop artist, best female hip-hop artist, and album of the year. Elsewhere, Ari Lennox and Drake were tied for the second-most nominations as they can both be found in four categories. With that being said, there was a glaring absence in the list of nominees, with that being Lil Nas X, and fans were not happy about it. Lil Nas himself expressed his frustration at the snub in a pair of now-deleted tweets.
“Thank you bet awards,” he wrote in one of the tweets. “An outstanding zero nominations again. black excellence!” He later added, “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.” Many agreed that Lil Nas should’ve been nominated, including Queen Latifah, who shared her thoughts after a run-in with TMZ.
“Lil Nas X is amazing,” she said. “He should’ve been nominated.” Despite this, Latifah didn’t seem to think that his sexuality was behind the snub. “I don’t know if that’s the case. I don’t know what’s behind all that, but inclusion is always the key. That’s what we should be striving for. There’s enough room in this world for everybody.”
You can view Queen Latifah’s interaction with TMZ here.