The R&B superstar, who was crowned the most influential artist of the year on Saturday night with a whopping nine nominations, has been in the headlines for months for his alleged role in a racially charged and homophobic slur against the Black Lives Matter movement, a trend he’s denied.
But a report from the Los Angeles Times claims that he was never banned from the Oscars and that he continued to attend as a regular on the Red Carpets for years after that, including as the host of the awards show.
The Times says that during the show’s first season, in 2017, “Lil’ B” was “not allowed to host the show because he is a regular performer.”
“In 2015, the host and his wife of nearly 20 years were accused of racism after they were asked by a white reporter if Lil’ B believed that the Black community ‘wasn’t ready for the Black people on this planet,'” the report states.
“Lil,’ who has previously called the Black Community ‘the most violent, evil, and mentally ill,’ has a history of disparaging racial and ethnic minorities, saying that they’re ‘stupid’ and ‘stolen’ and that they are ‘dead.'”
The report goes on to say that in 2016, “a female producer asked Lil’ b if he would like to attend a ‘black power dinner,’ but the rapper declined.”
The report also claims that Lil B’s “friends and family” continued to show up to the Oscars, even as they were banned from attending the show.
Lil b told TMZ in 2016 that he had been banned from going to the Red Carpets in the past for “hate speech.”
“I’ve had that problem since I was a young man.
And I’ve always had a problem with being able to say these things,” he said.
“But I never said I was going to be banned.
I said I would be allowed to go to the shows if they wanted me to go.””
It’s just the fact that it’s a racial issue, and it’s not even an issue of how I feel about the Black lives that are in this world.
I don’t care if they’re white, black, or Latino, I just want to make music and do good things.
That’s all I want to do.
I want the people of this world to love me.””
There’s a lot of hate going on,” he added.
“You can be a racist, but that doesn’t make you a bad person.”
“But I’ve had people tell me that I should be banned because of my political opinions, because I was doing this as a joke, because they thought it was funny,” Lil B said.
The Grammy Award-winning rapper said that he has since changed his mind.
