“You don’t like gay black men because you are afraid of black men, as a whole, being viewed as weak,” the rapper wrote on Twitter. Time and time again, he has pointed out the hypocrisy of his haters, noting that sexuality and pop have gone hand in hand for decades and that those who criticise him are displaying a dangerous double standard. Lil Nas X has stridently refused to bend to the ire of homophobes or to let their damaging comments go unnoticed. Some of y’all not even mad that i’m gay, some of y’all mad that i’m gay and still succeeding. “Some of y’all mad that I’m gay and still succeeding.” “Some of y’all not even mad that I’m gay,” he wrote this week.
The rapper’s boundary-pushing art is reflected in his boundary-pushing Tweets, miniature works of art that display an intellect that refuses to back down under pressure. That’s not even to talk about the public comments that Lil Nas X has made about his sexuality. With his music videos, and with the humane, trembling magic of his lyrics, Lil Nas X invites listeners into his world one that will seem familiar in some ways, but also stridently, desperately new. It’s a poet of the highest order that can make what is niche and personal feel universal, and to do so while making no concessions. That’s, after all, the way all great artists work. He makes no apologies for who he is, or for his tastes. The term ‘unapologetic’ has been overused in recent years, watered down into a form of empty and hollow praise. My heterosexuality leaving my body when I listen Industry Baby by Lil Nas X. We love confidence, and Lil Nas X’s imagery screams confidence it’s the product of an imagination that won’t let itself be tethered down to anything, not even convention.
There is nothing more attractive than bending the rules around your little finger, displaying a boundary-breaking sense of freedom. Sure, normalising such images has an effect on the mass consciousness, turning what was once scary into something approachable and acceptable. But it’s also determinedly hot.
Yet such a practice is no mere intellectual exercise. And it’s not just an aesthetic rehabilitation attempt - Lil Nas X also made a real difference to the lives of felons by raising money for those who have been incarcerated. It’s a form of reclamation, a way of taking those practices that have been coated in darkness and drawing them out into the light. Set in Montero State Prison, a winking reference to his own smash hit single, the Lil Nas X-starring clip is steeped in images once surrounded in controversy: prison showers, long, barred corridors, cramped cells. He submerges himself in images dredged up from conservative America’s worst nightmares - prisons, the Devil, Hell itself - and makes these spectres seem fresh and fun. But Lil Nas is different from these performers in the way that he interacts with taboo. For decades, some of the highest profile popstars have made art about their sexuality - everyone from Ricky Martin to Freddie Mercury of Queen have made camp part of their aesthetic code. Of course, Lil Nas X isn’t the first queer artist to take the mainstream by storm. That’s always the reaction of some to the genuinely unique - fear.Īnd make no mistake: Lil Nas X is unique. Lil Nas X might be new, but such argument against him aren’t: dullards said the same thing about Plato. Songs like ‘Montero’ and the recently released ‘Industry Baby’ have inspired ire from the worst corners of the internet, with critics claiming that Lil Nas X is corrupting the youth. Such an approach has led to a resurgence in hand-wringing from conservatives, homophobes and prudes alike.