Lil Nas X: More Than a Meme

He might not care if you call him by his name or your name, but I do care about the respect with which you put on that name. Montero Lamar Hill, better known as Lil Nas X, has flipped the worlds of hip-hop and Christianity on their heads over the past two weeks. With the release of his new song “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” Lil Nas X received his first true hit of public outrage. The outrage stems from the video to his song. However, before I get too deep into the meaning of the video and the backlash, it would be a good idea to inform those who may not know of how we got here.

Lil Nas X gained notoriety for the remix of his song “Old Town Road.” The remix stayed atop the Billboard Hot 100 Singles list for nineteen weeks. Around this time, after breaking Drake’s record for most streams of a song in one week, Lil Nas X came out as gay. It was not a secret but for the massive influx of new fans, it was somewhat of a surprise. The fact that Nas X was gay and becoming this popular led to some right-wing conspiracists to posit that he was pushing the “Gay Agenda” which is patently ridiculous. However, Nas X became a Fox News talking point with his outlandish sense of style and a photoshoot he did dressed as Nikki Minaj. He released an EP to somewhat mixed reviews but the sentiment from fans was almost entirely positive. Other than “Old Town Road (Remix)” being removed from the country charts, Lil Nas X had gotten through this early stage of his career without much significant controversy.

In June of 2020, Lil Nas X dropped a thirty-second teaser video of the song “Montero (Call Me by Your Name).” Whether it was me, or hundreds of thousands of people on the internet, the hype behind this song was immediate. It took nine months for Nas X to officially release the two-minute song. It was accompanied by a slightly longer, nearly three-minute-long music video. So began the best three days of Twitter viewing of my life. In the video, Lil Nas X goes from the garden of Eden, where he engages in same-sex erotic acts, to being put on trial, to being cast out of Heaven (via stripper pole) down to Hell where he proceeds to give Satan a lap dance. After the song and lapdance conclude, Nas X kills Satan, removing his horns and donning them himself.

So descended a mob of right-wing pundits and Christian fanatics like a plague of locusts. Lil Nas X has defended his video and song admirably on Twitter. He retweets praise and people dancing to it, while quote-tweeting and replying to people gay-bashing and telling him he will be burned in hell and is, once again, pushing the “gay agenda.” It doesn’t take a whole lot of logic and reason to see through the religious veil of the music video and see what the message truly is. It is about being yourself, facing backlash, and then further embracing the person you are. In a sub-three-minute music video, Lil Nas X managed to throw a giant ass spotlight on the bigotry and LGBTQ bashing that many people on the right and religious zealots hold so dear. Lil Nas X didn’t just make a banger with a video that has a nice message. Lil Nas X proved to myself, and the world at large that the guy who made “Old Town Road” is not just a meme. That guy is here to stay and has the potential to be one of the most important musical acts of the century.

First things first, I do not want to heap mounds of pressure upon a rapper that is younger than myself. Lil Nas X will be turning 22 in just five days, and it is not fair to just assume that because of this one video he will steer into tackling bigotry as a whole for his entire career. However, Nas X has shown that he is more than capable of defending himself to the intolerant class of townsfolk. He has directly contradicted the idea that these people were raised with, of this pristine (white) America with “family values” that somehow involve disenfranchising a completely normal subsect of the human population. We have seen a spike in LGBTQ awareness over the past decade that got a real shot in the arm when the Obama administration finally legalized gay marriage at a federal level. Since then there has been a fight for this community to be treated as equal, to receive the medical care they should be entitled to, and to be able to exist in society as everyday people.

Why all of this matters concerning a rapper is because Nas X is the first person this young, and with this much mainstream popularity, to foray that clout into a message of equality and acceptance of who a person is as a unique individual. Montero Lamar Hill is the person behind the rapper, and he is a dark-skin Black man that is homosexual. He raps for a living, is undoubtedly a multi-millionaire, and has the ears of millions of teenagers and young adults. His very existence is a threat to the way of life a certain group of people pretends to exist within. Nas X may not have been trying to take on a whole population of people’s messed up beliefs, but he did. He then followed all of this up by vehemently defending his position and the art he had created. He didn’t kowtow to anyone calling him a “faggot” or a “piece of shit.” He didn’t hide behind the mask of his label. Lil Nas X showed a level of maturity and precision with his responses that the people critiquing his lack.

What all of this nonsense surrounding his video has shown me, is the heart of Montero Hill. He doesn’t lack conviction like so many of his peers. He was willing to fight this thing to the bitter end. He attempted to release Satan-themed 97 Nike Air Maxes that had to be pulled before they could all be sold because Nike sued Lil Nas X and Saint Lauren, the company he partnered with to make the shoes. I understand the controversy around the shoes and people being sketched out by them, but at that point, you have to understand the level of shock value that Nas X is shooting for.

I am not someone that belongs to the LGBTQ community, but I do consider myself a supporter of the rights they seek. I believe in equality and standing for the rights of people that are not treated the way they should be. Lil Nas X is someone that a person like me can look to, and galvanize the sentiments I possess. Lil Nas X stopped being a meme when he released this song and video. He became an icon and one that’s here to stay.

Disclaimer: If this article offended you, good. I am not one to pretend like every viewpoint is valid just to get readers. If anything I said in this article that you take offense with because you think Lil Nas X is evil or some garbage akin to that, I do not want to hear it. I am always up for a civilized, informed debate about controversial topics. What I do not stand for is hatred of groups simply because you feel like they are lesser or unnatural. If you are bigotted in this way, leave a dumb comment and get off my website forever. Sports and hip-hop are places for inclusion. Nobody is forbidden from these spaces and if you have the gall to say or think that someone is inferior because of their sexual orientation or the color of their skin than you do not belong here. If you have an issue with this, my contact info is right up at the top of the page.