Lil Nas X stands up for himself in a society that hates queer people

RAPPER Lil Nas X recently dropped the video for his new single, Industry Baby. And it’s a marvel.

Industry Baby is produced by Kanye West and Take a Daytrip. It’s a high octane song with horns blasting and thumping bassline and it’s set to be another hit record for the young musician.

However, it’s the music video that has made the song and Lil Nas X one of the most topical stories this week.

It’s loosely inspired by and is reminiscent of The Shawshank Redemption.

Lil Nas X hatches a plan to escape from prison, even though it appears that he’s having fun while incarcerated. It’s loudly sexual – there are scenes where he is fondling his dancers (inmates) and a nude dance scene in the shower with everyone’s nether regions pixelated.

It’s an unabashedly queer music video and he is clearly having fun, as he does with all his videos. However, the backlash to the video has been massive.

And as expected homophobes, especially cishet (both cisgender and heterosexual) men, especially black men, from across the web attacked him on Twitter and Instagram with either blatant homophobia or micro-aggressive comments regarding queer black men.

This includes the idea that he’s part of “the gay agenda turning everyone queer”, that he’s part of “the plan to feminise and emasculate the black man”, and that he’s “doing too much now”.

Lil Nas X is known for being a troll and for entertaining these comments with razor-sharp clap backs, and while he still did it this time, he also took time to seriously address the homophobic comments he was receiving.

So why does Lil Nas X’s queerness offend men so much?

The obvious answer is homophobia, but several other factors play a role. The main one being misogyny.

Queerness, specifically with men, is often equated with femininity, whether the person presents as femme or not. And since we live in a patriarchal society, femininity, is always derided.

Cishet men in hip hop, especially, have played a huge part in perpetuating these ideals with how they sexualise and degrade women in their

lyrics and music videos.

By extension, when a queer man in music expresses themselves freely and openly, this challenges their perception of what masculinity is; and while Lil Nas X isn’t the first queer man to make it in the mainstream

music industry, he is the first openly gay black man to achieve this level success in pop and hip hop music while

presenting to a degree of “femme”.

Additionally, with his recent work the rapper made a conscious effort to express his queerness, not only in his red carpet appearances and interviews but in his art, promoting LGBTQI+ representation in mainstream media.

More than anything else, it’s Lil Nas X’s queer expression that drives cishet black men bonkers, since patriarchy and toxic masculinity has put them in this small box with regards to selfexpression. And seeing a cisman (a man whose assigned sex at birth is male, and whose gender identity aligns with that) being able to express himself without those shackles deeply frustrates them.

We saw again recently how hip hop heads keep being in queer people’s business unprovoked, when the Dababy decided to perpetuate the stigma around HIV/AIDS along with making homophobic remarks at the Rolling Loud Festival in Miami.

And while he gave a half-hearted

apology for his HIV/AIDS comments, all he had for the queer community was “the LGBT community ... I ain’t trippin on y’all, do you. Y’all business is y’all business.”

Rapper TI also chimed in, making a false equivalence between freedom of speech and homophobia. He said on Instagram: “If Lil Nas X can kick his sh** in peace ...then so should Dababy.” He was saying if Lil Nas X can be his true self in public, Dababy should be allowed to be homophobic.

However, even with all this pushback, Lil Nas X is still thriving and Industry Baby is set to top the charts.

And across the board, black queer men are making music in various genres and getting the attention they deserve. You have Durand Bernarr, who dropped his gay R&B album Dur&, and Vincint recently dropped his pop album There Will Be Tears, sure to be on high rotation at gay clubs.

MNEK has also been holding it down in the UK, not only with his music, but producing and writing several hit records for artists including Little Mix.

Todrick Hall also made a way for himself and has been able to attract rather a cult-like following, with his most recent album Femuline cranking the gay to the highest volume.

And with women in hip hop taking over when it comes to popularity in the genre, and Lil Nas X, this is going to push these gatekeepers of hip hop to rethink their views and realise there is no gay agenda or feminisation of the black men happening.

These men have always been there and can out rap, out perform and out sell you – so if don’t get with the programme, you will be left behind.