“Jay-Z paid more than $20 million to country radio stations to play Beyoncé songs so she’d top the Billboard country charts.”

When Beyoncé said that her new record, “Cowboy Carter,” was born from an experience she had where it was “very clear” she wasn’t welcome, many people concluded that she meant her 2016 performance with The Chicks at the Country Music Association Awards. 

Although their rendition of Beyoncé’s “Daddy Lessons” “got much of the live audience on their feet,” Vulture reported, Beyoncé’s appearance “upset traditionalists, sparking a heated is-she-country-or-not debate and leading to gross displays of racism.” 

Beyoncé has said “Cowboy Carter” isn’t a country album but a “‘Beyoncé’ album.” But its first two singles landed on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. 

Some social media posts claimed that they didn’t get there on their own merit. 

“Woah,” a May 7 Facebook post said. “Jay-Z paid more than $20 million to country radio stations to play Beyoncé songs so she’d top the Billboard country charts.”

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Jay-Z, Beyoncé’s husband, did not pay money for country stations to play her songs. 

This claim originated from America’s Last Line of Defense, an online publisher of self-described satire. From its Facebook account, which notes “nothing on this page is real,” America’s Last

Line of Defense said April 9 that “‘Operation Push Cowboy Carter’ has been going for months, with Jay-Z reaching out to stations across the country with offers of cash and glam gifts.”

We rate posts that say this fake claim is authentic Pants on Fire!