Lil Nas X tried to expla why he me out as gay. Then Kev Hart terpted him | CNN

Contents:

• LIL NAS X TRIED TO EXPLA WHY HE ME OUT AS GAY. THEN KEV HART TERPTED HIM
• THE SUBVERSIVE JOY OF LIL NAS X’S GAY POP STARDOM
• LIL NAS X JOK AND SAYS HE IS NO LONGER GAY AFTER LOSG AT GRAMMYS
• HOW LIL NAS X IS REVOLUTNIZG HIP-HOP AS AN EMPOWERED GAY STAR
• LIL NAS X IS UNAPOLOGETILLY GAY, AND FANS LOVE IT
• LIL NAS X OPENED UP ABOUT THE MICROAGGRSNS HE EXPERIENCED BEFORE COMG OUT AS GAY AND THE PRSURE HE’S FACED SCE
• IS NAS GAY?
• HOW LIL NAS X IS REVOLUTNIZG HIP-HOP AS AN EMPOWERED GAY STAR

LIL NAS X TRIED TO EXPLA WHY HE ME OUT AS GAY. THEN KEV HART TERPTED HIM

Now, 2021, he had achieved the unthkable, a feat only dreamed of by some of his peers who had gone om anonymy to the top of the charts — he ma another h song, and a brazenly gay one at that.

Maybe was the adrenale of the show, or the past two years of livg as an openly gay man, or some new wisdom unlocked by his recent birthday, settg him on a path of beg open to rejectn and growth. This is the difference between the Nas of “Old Town Road” and the one heard now, both mil approach and self-pictn: The new one is really, really gay. He wanted to be not jt a pop star but a visibly gay one, a figure built on that Gen Z tenncy to heighten a sexual inty to an exaggerated shtick, but one found on a genue pri and fort.

THE SUBVERSIVE JOY OF LIL NAS X’S GAY POP STARDOM

) After years of hidg himself, there was now no mistakg : He was tryg to be, all at once, a hmaker, a huge pop star, an out gay man and a sexual beg.

LIL NAS X JOK AND SAYS HE IS NO LONGER GAY AFTER LOSG AT GRAMMYS

Afterward, he posted a screenshot of an “article” om ABC News to his social media feeds, cleverly photoshopped to seem thentic: “Congrats are orr as Lil Nas X mak headl aga this week as he be the first gay person to earn a license. His father, who had by this pot married and had more children, was a gospel sger, and church beme a bigger part of Nas’s life at the same time as his romantic thoughts about other boys did — along wh a growg tert gay porn.

It’s the age-old nnectn between gay men and divas: Some men fall for Cher and others for Whney Hoton, but if you were a Black, closeted teenager the South wh a fiant spir, a pugnac personaly and a ep appreciatn for lorful wigs, then Nicki Maj was your woman. Nowhere has this allegatn weighed more heavily than wh “Montero, ” a song whose mic vio is a purposefully provotive sendup of the eternal damnatn that Nas, and untls gay people, have been promised.

) Where those three aimed to tillate, though, Lil Nas X wanted to monstrate: This is what havg a gay pop star uld actually look like — at least one versn, anyway. But ’s que another to embrace gay people as sexual begs, who n also enact an inty — jt as straight people so proudly, publicly and lucratively do — part through sex self. “We are 4 months and people are still actg surprised that I am beg gay and sexual performanc of a song about gay and sexual” stuff, he tweeted the next day.

HOW LIL NAS X IS REVOLUTNIZG HIP-HOP AS AN EMPOWERED GAY STAR

But the fact that a rap-aligned gay Black artist — let alone one who’s also such a untry fan that he vered Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” — uld pull this off atop the charts was startlg.

Hip-hop artists like Young Thug sometim toyed wh wearg drs to illtrate their ee spirs, but Lil Nas X ma a not-obv choice to put gay love and sire at the center of his craft. ’ If a gay person is playg wh Satanic them, you n’t not thk of Kenh Anger and Satan as a liberator, ” said Malamet, a wrer and podster on the history of queer genre and horror films. Lil Nas X Do It Aga And Go Even Further Wh 'INDUSTRY BABY': #NowPlayg As Lil Nas X be bolr his lyrics and creative visn, he transcends nf of "The Gay Rapper" stereotype, rvg out space as an unapologetic msiah for today's queer generatn.

LIL NAS X IS UNAPOLOGETILLY GAY, AND FANS LOVE IT

The song is one of his bt, but s real power om the acpanyg, highly-stylized vio where Lil Nas X breaks out of a prison populated wh Black gay men (and, for an unspecified reason, Jack Harlow an unseemly role as the Straight Whe Savr who livers a verse that is mid at bt and appropriate at worst).

LIL NAS X OPENED UP ABOUT THE MICROAGGRSNS HE EXPERIENCED BEFORE COMG OUT AS GAY AND THE PRSURE HE’S FACED SCE

However, when nsirg Lil Nas X's reer path, Montero State Prison is a settg that mirrors realy; as he is repeatedly cricized by evangelil Christians and Twter trolls alike for elevatg gay reprentatn — particularly for the prison's namake, his last sgle "MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)" — 's unrstandable Lil Nas X would nsir homophobia a prison, clstrophobic and imposg, pecially the mic dtry. As he be bolr his lyrics and creative visn, Lil Nas X begs to transcend nf of "The Gay Rapper" stereotype, rvg out space for himself as an unapologetic msiah for today's young, queer generatn. And Boosie were quick to make a nnectn to the artist and the “Indtry Baby” vio, wh Boosie gog as far to e homophobic slurs and threateng to “beat [Lil Nas X’s] a**.

Pastor Troy, a hardre rapper, also om Geia, went on a homophobic rant rponse to Nas’s Grammys look, wrg on Instagram and Twter: “Welp I gus I won’t be wng a Grammy… If this is what I gotta wear. Anti-gay bigotry is on the fensive hip-hop right superstar Lil Nas X, who me out as gay 2019, has been sparrg wh people who exprs many of the logil nsistenci that unrlie homophobia. On Instagram, DaBaby then ma thgs worse by explag that he had been tryg to show that his gay fans “got class, ” unlike the “nasty … junki on the street” who get AIDS.

But the reactns he’s kicked up, and some other recent velopments hip-hop, have outed bigots and unrled the gnive dissonance they live ’s speech did not mentn Lil Nas X, hip-hop’s new, openly gay superstar. But Lil Nas X has clearly set out to tt the bounds of such progrs, and we’re now seeg the How ‘Old Town Road’ transforms the listenerMsage-lan art such as the “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” mic vio is part of that ttg: It playfully dramatiz the way that gay people have to wrtle wh beg told they’re damned to hell. He’s playfully shot down the notns that queerns is a morn Wtern ventn; that he promot looser sexual ethics than straight rappers do; that he acts gay for fame; that prev generatns of queer stars have stayed closeted bee of tastefulns rather than bee of reprsn; that his art turns viewers away om heterosexualy; and that femy unrm male strength.

IS NAS GAY?

Here was classic false equivalence: Gay gyratns onstage might annoy some viewers, but they’re different om pog the exact rhetoric that ntribut to the AIDS crisis (not to mentn to the problems of prsn and suici the queer muny). What a difference a few trmatic months n make: The Nas who has reemerged is, he says, “a totally different person” — an outspoken and empowered gay man unaaid to exprs tth his art.

HOW LIL NAS X IS REVOLUTNIZG HIP-HOP AS AN EMPOWERED GAY STAR

Rap and R&B artists om Frank Ocean and Tyler, the Creator (both of whom Nas acknowledg as spiratns) to Azealia Banks, Le1f and Janelle Monáe have announced, acknowledged, kd of acknowledged or simply not nied beg gay or bisexual. “Hontly, I believe the panmic helped me get out of the ia of tryg to please everybody, and the ia of ‘He’s a ol gay person; he’s an acceptable gay person, ’” Nas says. ” On a lighter, more characteristic note, shortly after he me out publicly, he tweeted: “Jt got news that I’m gay and I will no longer be streamg my mic.

At the time of this story’s publitn, no fewer than five major rappers — none of whom Nas had mentned songs or statements — have publicly and flagrantly displayed their homophobia rponse to his stance, most promently DaBaby.

Fans of Lil Nas X are praisg the rapper and sger for beg "unapologetilly gay" after his long-awaed new sgle dropped on Friday track "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" was released on March 26 after months of song wh a mic vio directed by Tanu Muo and Lil Nas X, whose given name is Montero Lamar vio offers Hill's terpretatn of a flamboyant and futuristic Garn of En.