Music
Watch Lil Nas X Give Satan a Lap Dance in ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Video
The wild video combines biblical references and Greek mythology for quite the trip.
March 25 2021 7:01 PM EST
November 04 2024 9:42 AM EST
MikelleStreet
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The wild video combines biblical references and Greek mythology for quite the trip.
Lil Nas X has been pregnant for some time, and after about nine months he's giving birth. Welcome to the world of Montero.
For quite a bit now, Lil Nas X has been teasing his new track. Originally titled "Call Me By Your Name," he played a clip for fans while riding in his car on Twitter. Since, he's been teasing us every chance he can get, dropping a longer snippet under the new name "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" in a Super Bowl ad, releasing promo imagery, and more. Now, the star has released the full track along with a music video.
According to a release, "Montero" is Nas X's most revealing musical offering to date, produced by Take a DayTrip, Omer Fedi, and Roy Enzo. It tells the story of who Montero has become -- Montero is Nas X's legal name.
"Dear 14 year old Montero," he wrote in a note to himself on Instagram posted alongside the new project. "I wrote a song with our name in it. It's about a guy I met last summer. I know we promised to never come out publicly, I know we promised to never be 'that' type of gay person, I know we promised to die with the secret, but this will open doors for many other queer people to simply exist."
The video itself was imagined by the young performer with heavy nods to Greek mythology as well as biblical references, opening in the Garden of Eden. Here, we find Nas as Adam and then also as the snake. He tempts himself, with the snake pushing Adam to the ground and licking his body.
In another scene, Nas is about to be executed in the Coliseum, again surrounding with versions of himself both in stone version and with wigs piled high. When he is finally executed, after a slight rise, seemingly to heaven, he finds himself falling, then spinning down a stripper pole that leads to hell. There, he seduces the devil with a lap dance, if we are putting it simply. According to a release he "harnesses his sexuality," to strip the devil "of his power as an evil force -- and dismantling the throne of judgment and punishment that has kept many of us from embracing our true selves out of fear."
The video comes as Nas X has undoubtedly gone through a similar trajectory. Even though he's only been in the spotlight for a short while, fans have been able to watch him go from avoiding his sexuality to harnessing and leaning into it -- rapping lines like "I might bottom on the low but I top shit," -- even as others attempt to judge and chastise him for it.
"You see this is very scary for me, people will be angry, they will say I'm pushing an agenda," he continued in his letter to his teenaged self on Instagram. "But the truth is, I am. The agenda to make people stay the fuck out of other people's lives and stop dictating who they should be. Sending you love from the future."
In the project, a tree appears quite early on and the text on it translates to "after the division the two parts of man, each desiring his other half." The tree is a tree of life and the quote is a nod to Plato's symposium.
On the floor of hell the text reads "They condemn what they do not understand."
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Mikelle is the former editorial director of digital for PrideMedia, guiding digital editorial and social across Out, The Advocate, Pride.com, Out Traveler, and Plus. After starting as a freelancer for Out in 2013, he joined the staff as Senior Editor working across print and digital in 2018. In early 2021 he became Out's digital director, marking a pivot to content that centered queer and trans stories and figures, exclusively. In September 2021, he was promoted to editorial director of PrideMedia. He has written cover stories on Ricky Martin, Miss Fame, Nyle DiMarco, Jeremy O. Harris, Law Roach, and Symone.
Mikelle is the former editorial director of digital for PrideMedia, guiding digital editorial and social across Out, The Advocate, Pride.com, Out Traveler, and Plus. After starting as a freelancer for Out in 2013, he joined the staff as Senior Editor working across print and digital in 2018. In early 2021 he became Out's digital director, marking a pivot to content that centered queer and trans stories and figures, exclusively. In September 2021, he was promoted to editorial director of PrideMedia. He has written cover stories on Ricky Martin, Miss Fame, Nyle DiMarco, Jeremy O. Harris, Law Roach, and Symone.