Lenny Kravitz has called out the BET Awards after years of having his groundbreaking contributions to music ignored.
In an interview with GQ Magazine, which dropped on Wednesday (November 29), the rocker revealed that he was perplexed by the treatment he’d received from the television outlet and its marquee award ceremony.
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Kravitz — who has previously collaborated with the likes of JAY-Z and SAINt JHN —further declared that he’s never been given any sort of respect as a Black artist from so-called “urban” outlets.
“To this day, I have not been invited to a BET thing or a Source Awards thing,” he said to GQ. “And it’s like, here is a Black artist who has reintroduced many Black art forms, who has broken down barriers—just like those that came before me broke down. That is positive. And they don’t have anything to say about it?”
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Kravitz, of course, isn’t the only artist to call out the BET Awards for allegedly “snubbing” him.
Last month, Talib Kweli flamed the BET Hip Hop Awards for not nominating his podcast in this year’s Best Hip Hop Platform category, despite his belief that his People’s Party is the best Hip Hop podcast out right now.
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His post came after The Breakfast Club co-host Charlamagne Tha God questioned the award going to Yung Miami’s REVOLT TV show and podcast, Caresha Please, which beat out his popular morning radio show.
HipHopDX, Drink Champs, The Joe Budden Podcast, Million Dollaz Worth of Game, XXL, Spotify’s RapCaviar, and AllHipHop were also up for the award.
“@bet I didn’t talk my shit last year but I’m talking my shit this year,” Kweli wrote. “@cthagod and @djenvy are on to something here. There is no better hiphop podcast than Peoples Party. Period. We go FAR beyond gossip and click bait and provide actual service to the community.
“I don’t care about awards normally but I have a hard-working crew and they deserve recognition. Nobody does the research we do. Nobody asks better questions. NOBODY dives as deep into this culture on a journalistic level as we do.”
He added: “Y’all must be scared of us. That’s gotta be it. Because the snubs are disrespectful at this point. The people know. The artists know. Catch up. #worldsbestpodcast #peoplesparty.”
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The Black Star MC then reeled off some of the “esteemed guests” he’s interviewed on his podcast over the last two years, including Ice Cube, De La Soul, Wiz Khalifa, Black Thought, and Yasiin Bey, in addition to non-Hip Hop figures such as Jon Stewart, Ari Melber and David Cross.
“Nobody but us has brought this level of consistent cultural content,” he concluded. “I’ll take the Pepsi challenge with anyone.”
