Who Is Lil Nas X? New Details On The Country Rapper Who Jt Came Out As Gay | YourTango

Contents:

• LIL NAS X MAK HISTORY AS FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK ARTIST TO W AT CMA AWARDS
• AMERI NEED A GAY, BLACK MAN TO TOP S UNTRY CHARTS. PROTECT LIL NAS X AT ALL STS
• HERE ARE GAY COUNTRY SGERS WHO STOOD OUT LOUD AND PROUD
• MEET LIL NAS X, THE COUNTRY RAPPER WHO JT CAME OUT AS GAY
• LIL NAS X MAK GRAMMY HISTORY AS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY RAPPER NOMATED TOP TEGORI
• 30 BT GAY RAPPERS (LGBTQ+ HIP-HOP ARTISTS)
• RAPPERS WHO HAVE COME OUT AS GAY

LIL NAS X MAK HISTORY AS FIRST OPENLY GAY BLACK ARTIST TO W AT CMA AWARDS

(Matt Wkelmeyer / Getty Imag) Lil Nas X ma history Wednday night at the 53rd CMA Awards when he beme the first openly gay black mician to take home a w om the Country Mic h “Old Town Road, ” a llaboratn wh veteran untry sger Billy Ray Cys, was named the mil event of the year. 14, 2019An earlier versn of this article rrectly stated that Lil Nas X was the first openly gay artist to w a CMA Award. Country sgers Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark, both of whom are whe and openly gay, shared the 2014 song of the year CMA Award wh Kacey Mgrav for “Follow Your Arrow.

Although other popular mic genr also rerce misogyny, rape culture, vlence, dg age and homophobia, the populary and -optg of hip-hop allows to be the spegoat for societal hip-hop is viewed as "black mic, " this narrative not only disurag black kids like me om branchg out but also puts a posn of sufferg a siar fate to Jordan Davis, 17, and most recently Elijah Al-Am, 17, who were both young boys of lor killed for listeng to rap Davis, murred 2014, was shot three tim his r by 45-year-old whe Michael Dunn who was annoyed by his "thug" mic.

AMERI NEED A GAY, BLACK MAN TO TOP S UNTRY CHARTS. PROTECT LIL NAS X AT ALL STS

More:Lil Nas X on backlash after g out as gay: 'Oh, I'm already gettg 'A uple of days ago, on the 4th of July, 27-year-old Michael Pl Adams sl Elijah Al-Am's throat statg that "anyone who listens to rap mic is a threat to the whole muny. "Lil Nas X, the gay, 20-year-old, black, wboy-hat-wearg rappg rock star wh the hottt song the world, is important bee he's changg that narrative. Outsi of his mic, Young Thug is a rpected hip-hop artist known for his appreciatn (or appropriatn) of queer culture, spe the ia that hip-hop and the black muny uniquely have a homophobia problem.

Actual black openly gay artists, specifilly succsful black cis-men, like Frank Ocean and Tyler the Creator, and now Lil Nas X, have seen the creasg support for their sexualy wh the black mic muny, however the backlash and vlence still exist. Also:After teasg pani llaboratn, Lil Nas X and Gordon Ramsay get okgThe heterosexist and homophobic ments that he's receivg should give an ia of the everyday vlence that LGBTQ+ people experience om people fightg to mata a heteronormative culture om which they benef. For stance, Patrick Haggerty, whose band lled Lavenr Country, released what is wily believed to be the first explicly gay rerd 1973, ultimately leadg the band to fa to obscury.

From gay untry stars sgg os about lovg who you want to untry artists enuragg listeners not to be aaid to embrace their genr inty, the genre – both s artists and s fans – has fally reached a place where acceptance is the new standard. So, today, let’s take a look at some of the most celebrated gay untry sgers – om Grammy Award-wng stars Brandi Carlile and Lil Nas X to T.

HERE ARE GAY COUNTRY SGERS WHO STOOD OUT LOUD AND PROUD

” She even had never met another gay person – until she watched Ellen DeGener’ historic 1997 “I’m gay” episo, which she rerd on a VHS tape so she uld watch repeatedly. However, thgs changed at the height of his reer when he me out as gay durg the last day of Pri Month 2019 through a seri of tweets and his song lled “c7osure. In 2014, the Nashville artist revealed to PEOPLE a part of himself he has kept secret for his entire reer: beg a “happy gay man.

Herndon said that Anthony Robbs’ semar 2009 sparked the urage for him to e out, thkg how his story might help terrified gay youth. However, Oladokun was silently battlg si as she tried to rencile her fah wh the fact that she was gay, which she had been aware of at a young age. Osborne, one half of the popular untry mic duo Brothers Osborne, had known he was gay sce “before I even unrstood what was.

While he went through some hardships, like feelg very isolated his early days Nashville, he found the right moment to publicly e out as gay as the band’s reer picked up – and his announcement went off really well.

MEET LIL NAS X, THE COUNTRY RAPPER WHO JT CAME OUT AS GAY

As an openly gay man workg untry mic, Paisley Fields is boldly beg himself as he ntu to drive forward an often-perceived nservative mic genre.

The untry artist first me out 2018 after he was spired by the film Boy Erased, which tells the story of a teenage gay. In 2020, Tommy Atks ma history on untry rad wh the first-ever h to feature openly gay lyrics Europe and the Uned Kgdom.

Atks’ first EP, Kiss Me, Cowboy, on the other hand, wonrfully documented young love ma plited by the ravag of homophobia. It is Lily Rose’s way of changg the hearts and mds of many untry mic listeners – amidst s homophobic reputatn. Nearly two s later, Payne released the album Blue Ey, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pher, & Me, where he reunts his journey to live as an out gay man.

LIL NAS X MAK GRAMMY HISTORY AS THE FIRST OPENLY GAY RAPPER NOMATED TOP TEGORI

”Overnight, the 20-year-old Atlanta native — born Montero Lamar Hill — beme the biggt gay pop star the world. ”“It’s hard to be out genr where beg gay, or exprsg your sexualy, is owned upon, ” add platum rapper and sger iLoveMakonnen, born Makonnen Sheran, who rose to fame as a protégé of Drake and me out as gay 2017. ”Before the viral sensatn of “Old Town Road” turned Hill to a pop star and gay in, hip-hop was already reachg a turng pot s clivy, as more young black men explorg sexualy and terrogatg masculy their work are gettg mastream attentn.

Rap culture has always been powered by unbridled machismo, and one would be hard prsed to not fd a gay slur embedd the lyrics of any of the genre’s most famo archects. Slang such as “s” and “No homo” and “Pse” that e queerns as a punchle have been thrown around sually for as the old guard has been replaced wh a younger generatn unncerned wh rigid labels and unbothered by genre, today’s rap and R&B scene isn’t as exclively heteronormative as once was. “We know folks our muny have always been religly nservative, and beg gay is still seen as taboo, ” said Ebro Darn, the global edorial head of hip-hop and R&B for Apple Mic and host of “Ebro the Morng” on New York’s Hot 97 rad statn.

”Over the past uple of years, Ocean’s former Odd Future llaborator, Tyler, the Creator, has transned om a bratty provotr who hurled gay slurs wh reckls abandon to a thoughtful nfsnalist, one who surprisgly and rather matter-of-factly raps about his own attractn to men.

30 BT GAY RAPPERS (LGBTQ+ HIP-HOP ARTISTS)

A diverse array of talents such as Brockhampton ontman Kev Abstract, Steve Lacy (also formerly affiliated wh Odd Future) and Skype Williams have all prented works this year that are eely crafted through a black queer his “Arizona Baby” album, -produced by Jack Antonoff (Taylor Swift), Abstract reflects on growg up gay and Corp Christi at the turn of the lennium. 1 song Ameri and jt eclipsed a chart rerd that Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men set 23 years ago wh “One Sweet Day, ” a song spired by the AIDS crisis and the tragic peril brought to so many black gay men this untry.

RAPPERS WHO HAVE COME OUT AS GAY

Walter Thompson Innovatn Group back 2016 found that only 48% of 13-20 year-olds intified as exclively heterosexual, pared to 65% of the generatn before is an dience that shgs when Tyler, the Creator do an about-face the way he did on 2017’s stellar “Flower Boy” where he sually rapped about beg attracted to men after years of g gay slurs — a topic he still ref to addrs outsi of the mic (he cled to be terviewed for this piece). “Tth is, sce a youth kid, thought was a phase / thought ’d be like the phrase; ‘poof, ’ gone / But, ’s still go’ on, ” he that’s not to say the rt of the mic dtry is that much further mic had lacked an openly gay superstar before Adam Lambert and Sam Smh ma history wh their chart buts and Grammy victori, rpectively.

And spe their stat as legendary rock hmakers and gay ins, there was much hand-wrgg over how bpics for Queen and Elton John would handle the queerns of s evolutn hip-hop is signifint, albe more gradual and ls pronounced than the larger shift pop culture over reprentatns of black male was Fox’s hip-hop drama “Empire, ” which ma a powerful statement by makg one of s leads a gay black R&B sger (for a time, the rerds released by the character — played by Jsie Smollett — were the only mic by an out gay black man gettg mastream rad play. )“Moonlight, ” a g of age tale about a gay black boy, won bt picture at the Amy Awards 2017 and for the first time queer people of lor outnumbered their whe unterparts on TV, acrdg to GLAAD’s annual TV diversy report.