One of the biggest rising stars in the music industry since the beginning of 2019 has been Atlanta-born rapper/singer-songwriter Montero Lamar Hill also known as Lil Nas X. At the end of 2018, he released his breakout country-rap single titled "Old Town Road".
The song went viral this year thanks to the "Yeehaw Challenge" meme on social media. The song quickly rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 where it has been for the past 13 weeks and counting.
On June 30, 2019, which is the last day of Pride Month, he posted on his social media that he wanted his followers and fans to "listen closely" to his song titled "C7osure (You Like)".
some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm no more. but before this month end… https://t.co/CAdfpmx4rx— nope (@nope) 1561926484.0
The tweet promoted speculation and conversation about the sexuality of the rapper on whether or not this was his way of coming out as a gay man. The next day, he confirmed the speculation by showing the cover art from his debut EP, titled "7", which contains a rainbow flag-lighted building.
deadass thought i made it obvious https://t.co/HFCbVqBkLM— nope (@nope) 1561936473.0
Lil Nas X joins a very small list of male artists in the hip-hop industry who have been open about their sexuality.
Being apart of the LGBTQ+ community in the hip-hop genre and being very open about it is a very rare thing to find in the industry.
Homophobia has been a very big problem in the hip-hop industry due to song lyrics containing anti-gay slurs, anti-gay sentiments, and normalizing violence against the community.
The terms "faggot" and "no homo" are the anti-gay slurs that most often used in hip-hop lyrics.
In my opinion, the hip-hop community has come a long way since they really don't use anti-gay slurs anymore and there are more artists, like Frank Ocean and Kevin Abstract, being very open about their sexualities.
I love how Lil Nas X is a gay African-American male rapper/singer that has a number one single for the past 13 weeks of 2019 in the country-rap genre. He doesn't have to fit into one genre of music to be successful. He can be in multiple all at once.
On his debut EP, he showcases a variety of music like a country rap on "Old Town Road" and "Rodeo", hip-hop on "Panini", and pop punk on "F9mily (You & Me)" and "Bring U Down".
He is the future of mainstream music. The music industry deserves an artist like Lil Nas X.
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