Lil Nas X Claps Back At Criticism Of His On-Stage Kiss At The BET Awards

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.”

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.”

Check out Nas’ performance here.