Lil Nas X Claps Back At Critic After Making Out With Dancer At BET Awards

Updated September 8, 2021

While it may be easy to forget in the wake of his most recent controversies, there really weren't many times throughout his career where rapper and singer Lil Nas X wasn't at the center of a big discussion that was bigger than him.

After all, the song "Old Town Road" largely put him on the map due to the debate as to whether it was "country" enough to belong on Billboard's Country/Western charts before Billy Ray Cyrus stepped in to save the day.

But since the release of his song "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)," Lil Nas X has started courting controversy a little more deliberately and with a recent statement after his performance at the BET Awards, he's shown that he's already prepared for any backlash people can throw at him.

Lil Nas X certainly made an impression at the 2021 BET Awards on June 27.

Getty Images | Bennett Raglin

He took to the stage with a group of male dancers clad in costumes that were clearly inspired by the ancient Egyptian Empire while a Sphinx and two giant torches towered above them.

But of course, the most talked-about moment came after he shared a kiss with one of his dancers while the song ended.

And as he likely expected, the move led some on Twitter to react with outrage.

While some excitedly caught on to the way that Lil Nas X's performance paid homage to the music video for Michael Jackson's 1992 hit "Remember the Time," others thought that it was disrespectful to kiss a dancer while evoking Black history.

As one user put it, "Don't use African culture for [expletive] like this! Respect our ancestors."

But Lil Nas X's response to this comment suggested he was being truer to Egyptian and African history than that person seemed to appreciate.

In his words, "Y’all really like to pretend homosexuality didn’t exist in African culture."

And it wasn't long before others came through to back this statement up.

One took the opportunity to remind Twitter of Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, who arguably joined together to form the first recorded same-sex couple in history.

Twitter | @DavidRP91

According to The New York Times, there's some debate among archaeologists as to the nature of their relationship but they were nonetheless buried together and images at the time depicted them embracing as closely as husbands and wives would have at the time.

But if that alone wasn't convincing, another user provided an article that highlighted 21 different indigenous societies throughout Africa where same-sex relationships were commonplace.

As this person said, "Africa is a continent with hella cultures existing inside of it. Also learn your own history."

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