Another Ranting Thinkpiece About Lil Nas X & Montero (Article)

I was watching Lil Nas X’s interview with Hot 97 upon the release of his debut album, MONTERO. Ebro and company referred to the joy Lil Nas X finds in trolling as “the most hip-hop sh*t ever”, and they’re right. Marketing genius aside, the way Lil Nas X pokes fun at the “established order” and breaks boundaries is the exact type of youthful energy that the genre (and culture) was founded upon. In a time where the genre appears to be going back to its roots with a renewed emphasis on actual rapping, you would think it would be making this return with the current mindset of acceptance that hip-hop has continued to champion in recent years. So why does Lil Nas X have almost no features on his debut album despite the fact that he has consistently churned out hit after hit. Even more so, how come none of these artists have secured a Lil Nas X feature for themselves? We can tiptoe around it until Detox drops but the fact of the matter is we all know why.

We are now five years removed from the heavy mumble rap backlash that drew major attention to the generational gap. Fans are no longer being forced to pick between the mainstream sound of triplet flows over trap drums and more substantial lyrical content. Listeners seem to have figured out there is a time and place for each sub-genre. Even the artists themselves have made the lines between the subgenres increasingly blurry by either adapting certain aspects of other types of music into their own or by cross-pollinating with collaborations between artists of wildly different styles. This has honestly made hip-hop more exciting than it’s ever been. There’s really something for everyone now.

There used to be a hint of irony when a rapper would give props to someone who breaks the mold like Lil B (thank you Based God). A shout out to Future would’ve been followed by an attempt at mumbling triplets in his signature tone, almost like making fun of him. It’s like that episode of #blackAF where the white couple tell Kenya Barris and Rashida Jones that they’re “so hip-hop” (cringe). Nowadays we have more traditional-sounding artists like J. Cole properly giving Young Thug the respect he deserves. We have Eminem praising the late Juice WRLD for his freestyle ability. We have younger MC’s like Cordae trying to bridge the gap for the new generation. We even have new trailblazers in older sounds like Westside Gunn collaborating heavily with more avant-garde students of the game like Tyler, The Creator.

Lil Nas X came out the gate with “Old Town Road” tearing up the Country charts, eventually becoming the longest running #1 record in Billboard history. We all stood behind him as they tried to kick him off the charts. We claimed discrimination, and rightfully so considering the racist history of most of the Country music establishment. He even got his own J. Cole-Young Thug moment when Hannah Montana’s dad hopped on the remix. Young Thug himself did the same. For a while it was remix after remix. Everybody was coming out and supporting the kid. Then he came out as gay and the very culture crying out against the discrimination turned around and discriminated against him itself.

Homophobia has a history not just in hip-hop, but the Black community at large. A lot of us feel like we can’t be seen to be soft or feminine in any way. After actual centuries of being oppressed, a lot of Black men have a resentful mentality toward anything that portrays us as any less masculine. We fear that a Black man wearing a dress or a purse or makeup threatens our own ability to be perceived as a masculine Black man. I think this is what Boosie meant when he said “we don’t want to see that, we trying to be straight”. Anytime Martin Lawrence or Tyler Perry crossdress, there’s an outcry about the gay agenda destroying our community. But we longed for Lil Nas X’s freedom to be accepted into largely White (and racist) genre of Country music as a disruptor when he was perceived as a straight Black man. Make it make sense.

Black people in America have long fought for freedom. We’ve fought for the freedom to exist as human beings instead of property. We’ve fought for the freedom to experience the same unalienable rights as the rest of the country. We’ve fought for our art to be recognized for it’s incredible creative accomplishment. And that same art form is now the most popular genre of music on the planet, giving second chances to people whom society at large would’ve forgotten about or disenfranchised. These are drug dealers and sometimes even murderers tearing up the charts. Without hip-hop, white America would’ve thrown these people in jail cells and forgotten about them. In some cases, it’s still trying to. But hip-hop has literally saved a lot of inner-city families. My favorite rapper right now is Tyler the Creator, a bisexual man with a long documented history of homophobic content in his own music. He himself has reformed since coming out and while he still trolls about his ambiguous sexuality (among other things), his art has taken on a new emotional sincerity since his embrace of his true self. He stands for freedom.

The same can be said for the majority of the new wave of “hip-hop artists”. Women in rap are bigger than they’ve ever been, flaunting their sexuality and giving mainstream America nightmares in doing so. These are the same “what about the kids” kind of vague nightmares that white America used to have about Black art in general (yes it’s the same; we parent our children, not the media). Beyond that, emo rap has exploded in recent years. Young, Black men are bearing a lot more than just the pain that comes with street life and are diving deeper into themes of mental health and more typical emotional experiences than those specific to our community, which has helped it find a much wider audience through artists like the late XXXTentacion and the late Juice WRLD. There is a common theme in all of this: acceptance. Just like we’ve accepted those deemed by mainstream America as the scum of society to run our airwaves and get a second chance at “the American dream”.

With these being some of the prevailing trends in rap right now, it makes sense that Lil Nas X’s new album MONTERO feels like the next step for both of these new waves. This may just be the debut album for one artist but it means so much more than that to so many people who finally feel seen, heard, and free. In the same vein, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane & KRS-One sought to empower their disenfranchised communities through a new genre of music and accompanying culture. In the same vein, Kid Cudi, Kanye, Drake, Future, etc. opened the floodgates for men to bear their emotions in the genre. In the same vein, Nicki Minaj & Cardi B re-imagined what female rap could be on so many levels, inspiring the Doja Cat’s, the Megan thee Stallion’s, the Rico Nasty’s and Coi Leray’s to all do their own thing.

This is the exact change our culture is and has been afraid of. This MONTERO album is a sincere account on what it’s like to be a gay Black man in not just hip-hop, but America as a whole. There’s a lot of pain that comes with that that others don’t even realize they’re inflicting. I remember other kids jokingly calling me gay as an insult in my youth and how much that would hurt. I can’t even imagine how much that would affect me throughout my life if I actually were a closeted homosexual. But even beyond that, it carries the same spirit of freedom that the genre has always stood for. So the next time someone says “what about the kids?” as if media is converting these children to homosexuality, think about the kids who would’ve killed themselves if an album like this didn’t exist because their parents were too worried about the media brainwashing their children that they let an album parent their children. Growth takes stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new, and this is what hip-hop has always been about. There are plenty of other ways to live your life beyond fitting into the stereotype of what a man should be. At the end of the day, Lil Nas X is knocking down barriers for an oppressed people but he’s just another Black kid who found success being his true self. Wake up hip-hop. We should be standing with our brothers (and sisters). It’s time to not just accept Lil Nas X, but embrace him.