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Variety cover story on how Lil Nas X is revolutionizing hip-hop as an empowered gay star
Lil Nas X is all the rage these days and it’s fabulous. He’s old the cover of this week’s Variety magazine.
Here is an excerpt:
Newfound fame has felled many a young superstar, and Lil Nas X, feeling overwhelmed by the massive success of his 2019 hit “Old Town Road,” decided to take a brief hiatus early last year to settle in and work on his debut album. Then COVID hit.
“I think I spent all of the pandemic making music and crying — no in-betweens,” the 22-year-old rapper-singer says now. “For the first month or so, I did not leave my house, and once I did, I was super overly critical of everything I was making. I was letting everything online get to me and feeling like things were over for me.”
What a difference a few traumatic months can make: The Nas who has reemerged is, he says, “a totally different person” — an outspoken and empowered gay man unafraid to express truth in his art.
Far from “Old Town Road,” the rap-country earworm that famously was recorded for $50 in a small Atlanta studio and has become the longest-running No. 1 hit in Billboard Hot 100 history, Nas’ recent lyrics, videos, TV appearances and especially public statements are exponentially more honest, autobiographical and queer. And while he avoids making grandiose statements about being a pioneer or a trailblazer for the LGBTQ community — “Let’s fuckin’ go, gay agenda!” he wrote last month, tongue firmly in cheek, when retweeting that he had the top two videos on the YouTube U.S. songs chart — he doesn’t need to. His actions do the talking.
Read full article at Variety.com
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