The Liberation of Lil Nas X
Lil Nas X is a self-affirming Black gay millennial, a megastar still rising, and an impresario of social media. His releases shatter sales and streaming records. His videos and live performances display unambiguously queer Black sexiness before mainstream audiences. He releases widely acclaimed work and homophobes, resentful of his mass appeal, attack as if driven by primal urge rather than clear reason. His pithy clap backs expose the structural cracks of the most commonly used homophobic arguments and pinpoint the heterosexist double standards by which he is judged. As followers and critics argue over the propriety of a lap dance for Satan, a butt naked prison shower scene, or a cisgender man’s pregnancy photoshoot, they engage in highly public dialogues on the rights of queer sexual and gender expression. And all of these things have conspired to make Lil Nas X a phenomenon that will be remembered for much more than phenomenal record sales.
Lil Nas X’s pop culture dominance is indisputable. He picked up 3 wins at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards, including the coveted Video of the Year award. He performed a live debut of “Industry Baby” joined by collaborating rapper Jack Harlow. Dressed in full regalia, Lil Nas X led his dancers in a drumline onstage, stripped down to track pants, and marched into Montero State Prison. For the finale, he delivered a short, sexy sample of Montero clad in tiny sparkly neon pink shorts. The performance included a dose of AIDS awareness, as he was joined onstage by Mardrequs Harris of the Southern AIDS Coalition. Harris’ jacket sported the number 433,816 in red, which referenced “the number of people living with HIV in the U.S. South” as of 2015.
No celebrity could have given a more fitting introduction than Billy Porter who recalled an earlier time that was “not ready for all this Black boy joy” “It’s a new day and I’m so thankful to have lived long enough to see it,” Porter heralded. It was a poignant nod from elder to the younger Black queer artist, each triumphant through being true to themselves. Lil Nas X’s acceptance speech for the Video of the Year award was short and flippant, “I want to say thank you to the Gay Agenda. Let’s go Gay Agenda”. It was a direct kiss-off to his haters, who are watching him win by living and performing as his authentic self.
“It’s a new day and I’m so thankful to have lived long enough to see it.”
Lil Nas X emerged by claiming the number one spot with his first Billboard Hot 100 entry, the brilliant pop confection “Old Town Road.” An entrenched white country music base rejected the 19-year-old rapper as a definitive outsider who toppled their chart as if he did not realize the position was reserved for whites only. This was not enough to stop the song from becoming a record-breaking smash. Within weeks of his triumph, Lil Nas X officially shared the truth about his sexuality via Twitter. Anticipating the rants, even from among his followers, he predicted: “some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more.”
The video for his follow-up smash "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”, a lusty tableau of internal conflict and self-discovery, fused elements of Biblical narrative, homoeroticism, and pop iconography. Within days of its March 25th release, several public figures targeted him as a conspiratorial agent bent on the corruption of children and the destruction of American morality. After one critic tweeted: “The system is targeting kids. Lil Nas X’s fanbase is mostly children. They did the same thing with Miley Cyrus after Hannah Montana,”—Lil Nas X clarified “there was no system involved. I made the decision to make the video. I am an adult. I am not gonna spend my entire career catering to your children. That is your job.”
The Audacity of Black Queerness
Fittingly on Pride weekend, Lil Nas X turned out the 2021 BET Awards with an onstage rendition of “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” Clad as an Egyptian pharaoh, Lil Nas X and his all-male troupe served a sultry homage to the King of Pop. A culminating kiss between Lil Nas X and one of the male dancers sealed the routine’s place in history. Never before had a production so brimming with Black queer sensuality been endorsed at one of the premier stages of Black music aristocracy. Media platforms were flooded with comments blasting the performer for daring to bring Black queer erotica to prime time. Accused of being “insecure about your sexuality” and “overcompensating for it every chance you get”, he acknowledged, “you’re right I am insecure about my sexuality. I still have a long way to go. I've never denied that. When you’re conditioned by society to hate yourself your entire life, it takes a lot of unlearning. Which is exactly why I do what I do.”
His follow-up installation, the “Industry Baby” video, was the first through which Lil Nas X directly mocks his critics. He is a defendant sentenced to the fictional “Montero State Prison” in this spirited “Shawshank Redemption” adaptation. Prison is the brick-and-mortar embodiment of structural oppression, violence, and anti-Black dehumanization in the U.S., one in which gay and transgender inmates are especially vulnerable. It is also a site of man-to-man, woman-to-woman sexual activity. Sex behind bars in the U.S. or anywhere else is not limited to acts of rape and coercion, it also occurs quite regularly by consensual coupling and sustained relationships. “Industry Baby’s” jailhouse backdrop is sheer camp, a bathhouse with twerking pretty boys and iron-pumping trade. It is not at all meant to resemble the real thing, though it flirts with the reality that inmates are getting it on every day. Its gravitas is symbolic. Lil Nas X breaks out, and unlike Shawshank’s Andy Dufresne, he takes his fellow inmates with him. The ending celebrates the collective body being set free. Lil Nas X has arranged for the video to serve as a fundraiser for the Bail Project, a non-profit that “pays bail for people, reuniting families and restoring the presumption of innocence.”
“The volume of Lil Nas X’s liberation agitato is particularly troubling for Black people who defend their anti-LGBTQ bias as it forcefully airs Black homophobia before the world like the dirty laundry they feel compelled to keep hidden from the white gaze.”
The volume of Lil Nas X’s liberation agitato is particularly troubling for Black people who defend their anti-LGBTQ bias as it forcefully airs Black homophobia before the world like the dirty laundry they feel compelled to keep hidden from the white gaze. By daring to claim his rightful place while refusing closeted conditional acceptance, Lil Nas X poses damage to their way of life, as the unmuzzled voice of the oppressed is the most frightening threat to the oppressor.
“Yall be silent as hell when niggas dedicate their entire music catalogue to rapping about sleeping with multiple women but when I do anything remotely sexual I’m “being sexually irresponsible” & “causing more men to die from aids” y’all hate gay ppl and don’t hide it,” Lil Nas X tweeted.
Ben Houdijk / Shutterstock.com
Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants
His bold truth-telling has earned the adoration of Black LGBTQ folks who witnessed him take on the reins of Black queer activism. We applaud him for his emancipation as we did such forerunners as Meshell Ndegeocello, Billy Porter, Janet Mock, and Frank Ocean, and grand elders, Archbishop Carl Bean and Sylvester. In him we behold ourselves at our freest, daring to live without silence and secrecy, displaying our full plumage and conceding absolutely nothing to those who would clip our wings. In identifying as a power bottom, he has drawn heightened attention to the significance of sexual position identity and the stigma bottoms face within the queer community. On occasion, he encounters resistance from Black gay men who seem envious, if not fearful, of his unfettered ways. Responding to a gay naysayer on Twitter, Lil Nas X offered a mirroring read of the underlying shame.
“His bold truth-telling has earned the adoration of Black LGBTQ folks who witnessed him take on the reins of Black queer activism. We applaud him for his emancipation as we did such forerunners as Meshell Ndegeocello, Billy Porter, Janet Mock, and Frank Ocean, and grand elders, Archbishop Carl Bean and Sylvester.”
“Y’all hate yourselves so much. Y’all live your lives trying your best to appease straight ppl. Y’all are uncomfortable with what I do because y’all are afraid they will be uncomfortable with you. Work on yourselves. i love who i am and whatever i decide to do. get there,” he tweeted.
“Lil Nas X is the promise, the manifestation of so many artists before him,” says Anthony Antoine, an openly gay/bi musician based in Atlanta. Since the late 90s, the veteran activist/artist has been making head-turning music about Black queer life matters including the gender-switched Chante Moore remake “Dante’s Got A Man”. Antoine credits forerunners who dared to present their unabridged selves like Bean, Sylvester, and Jermaine Stewart as his influences.
“How do we get to [have] a Little Nas X? It didn't happen without those who came before me,” Antoine says. “I gotta call out Valentino’s “I Was Born This Way”, which really is Archbishop Carl Bean. “Lil Nas X is everything people told me could never happen and here it is.”
This article is dedicated to the trailblazing spiritual leader/artist/activist and founder of Unity Fellowship Church movement, Archbishop Carl Bean. Thank you for helping so many of us become "proud to tell it.”-Craig Washington
Cover Image of Lil Nas X by Miller Mobley for Billboard
Editor’s Note: Lil Nas X has included CNP in his “baby registry” of LGBTQ+ organizations to support in advance of the release of his debut album “Montero'' on September 17.
