Lil Nas X Talked About His “Terrifyg” Comg Out Experience And The Mental Stra Of Beg Gay And Black

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.

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

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.

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

) 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. 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.

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

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.

LIL NAS X IS UNAPOLOGETILLY GAY, AND FANS LOVE IT

“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. 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.

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

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.

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).

IS NAS GAY?

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.

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

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.