Beyoncé Is a 'Disruptor': Why the CMAs Snubbed Cowboy Carter

Beyoncé may be one of the most iconic artists of her generation, but that doesn't mean she's always celebrated.

Earlier this month when the Country Music Association Award nominations were announced, Cowboy Carter was not among them. This is despite the project reaching No. 1 on Billboard’s “Top Country Albums” chart, and the single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” hitting No. 1 on “Hot Country Songs.”

Emmett G. Price III, dean of Africana Studies, spoke to NBC News about the snub, calling her a “disruptor” and noting how he wasn’t exactly surprised by the lack of nominations.

Cowboy Carter, he said, challenges “not only the historical and cultural roots of country and Western but also how we normalize certain cultural aspects of country culture.” And while other Black artists Shaboozey (who appears on two Cowboy Carter tracks) and the War and Treaty did receive nominations, they represent nominees in just three out of the 12 categories awarded for artists.

“Beyoncé is gonna be just fine,” Price told NBC News. “But what does it mean for the other perhaps Black and Brown or queer artists who have been marginalized, who have been pushed to the fringes because they don’t look country, or they don’t walk country, or they don’t sound country?”

There is speculation that Cowboy Carter came out of Beyoncé’s experience at the CMA Awards in 2016, where she joined the Chicks onstage for a surprise performance and was booed. “I did not feel welcomed . . . and it was very clear that I wasn’t,” she wrote in an Instagram caption in March.

This isn’t Price’s first commentary on Queen Bey; he recently analyzed the choice of “Freedom” as a campaign anthem after it was picked by the Harris camp. He also previously spoke about Cowboy Carter and Black people in country music to the Harvard Gazette and BBC.

“What [Beyoncé’s] trying to do is not only create effective art, but to leverage it to be a conversation starter so that we can heal our nation,” he told the Gazette.

“She’s from Houston. She’s a Texan. She understands country, both the music and the culture, both the attractive and non-attractive aspects of it. She also understands the influence that it has on people’s lives and she’s going right after that, trying to get us in conversation rather than hiding in the camps we’re more comfortable in.”