Last Friday, Lil Nas X released a new single, “Late To The Party,” which includes the refrain “Fuck BET.” It’s the result of a beef with the BET Awards show, which aired on Sunday night and for which Lil Nas X was not nominated. When the nominations were announced a few weeks ago, Lil Nas X expressed his disappointment with the network: “how can i get acknowledged by the most acclaimed award show in the world and then not even just 1 nomination from my own people?” he tweeted at the time.

In a new statement that was issued to Rolling Stone ahead of yesterday’s show, Lil Nas X claimed that his sour association with BET stems back further than the lack of nominations at this year’s ceremony. “My relationship with BET has been painful and strained for quite some time. It didn’t start with this year’s nominations like most people might think,” Lil Nas X said in the statement. “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.”

During 2021’s ceremony, Lil Nas X performed “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” which came soon after he made his pants-splitting SNL debut. “They say that ‘no one cheered louder’ for me than them that night,” Lil Nas X continued, referencing one of the network’ earlier statements about their bad blood. “But the BET Awards team was actually very upset that I kissed my dancer onstage and vocalized their discontent with multiple members of my team immediately following the performance.”

A BET spokesperson told Rolling Stone that the “summation of events around Lil Nas X’s 2021 BET Awards performance is simply untrue.”

At last night’s BET Awards, Lil Nas X collaborator Jack Harlow wore a Lil Nas X shirt on the red carpet.