Trina Talks BET Awards Snub

When BET nominations came out last week, a slew of stars were left off the list including Miami rapper Trina. The southern femcee released a mixtape, an album (Amazin’) and played a huge role in Ludacris’ 2010 album Battle Of The Sexes, but none of that could sway a nomination for her in the Best Female Hip-Hop Artist category. Nicki Minaj, Diamond, Cymphonique and Lola Monroe were all nominated instead of Trina; the latter two have yet to release an album making matters worse.



Trina used Twitter to vent her frustration at the snub declaring, “F*ck BET.” In a surprising display of unity, Nicki Minaj and Diamond both voiced their surprise at Trina’s absence from the list and used Twitter to express their dismay.

Diamond wrote, “Shout out to my big sis @TRINArockstarr she has always been my idol! I don't knw wut happen wit the nominations.. But she raised all of US!”

While Nicki Minaj mocked BET, “Looks @ nominations. Didn't know it was April Fools... *waits for Trina's name to appear before I take this seriously*”

Unfortunately, a few people were left off the ballots for this year’s BET Awards. Songstress Keyshia Cole didn’t receive one nomination although she had seven number one singles this year.

Keyshia had this to say about BET: “That awkward moment when u realize in everyone's eyes your not the sh*t anymore. #POW. I've officially got the memo. Thank mtv/bet”

BET Senior VP, Stephen Hill, addressed the issue on May 23 saying, “Trina didn’t submit a video that was in during the eligibility period. Let me back up. To be eligible, here’s what you have to have: a video that’s submitted and then first played on BET…between April 1 of one year and March 30 of the next year. So for this eligibility period it would be April 1 of 2010 to March 30 of 2011. She did not release a video to us in that time. Million Dollar Girl came in March. I think it was March 12 or so of 2010. And so she was in last year’s nominees for that.”

He went on to state how BET loved Trina and didn’t mean anything by the snub. “We love Trina, we work with Trina. She performed Million Dollar Girl on Rip The Runway in February of 2010. So we love Trina. We definitely understand that it’s a misunderstanding,” he said. “And I’ll tell you now, if I were Trina and I’d released something during the eligibility period and it had not been nominated, I probably would’ve had a little bit of side-eye too. But the truth is she just wasn’t in the eligibility period.”

After speaking with Stephen Hill, Trina released this statement via Twitter: “I would like to apologize to The BET Network and @StephenGHill for speaking out how I felt.”

The BET Awards airs live on June 26th from the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium.