Lil Nas X has shut down the ridiculous theory that he’s only gay to sell records.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday (20 April), Lil Nas X wrote: “Y’all love saying I’m being gay for success but can’t name five successful gay male artists in the last 10 years to save your life.”
While most of his followers tried, and failed, to list five gay male artists, others continued to insist that the “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” singer’s “whole brand” was being gay.
One Twitter user, using the name Starbucks Spellman, had a confusing reaction to the tweet: “God you’re so sad, how do you not even realise you’re dissin all the gay artists that came before your a**?”
Lil Nas X responded: “I’m not dissing anyone. I’m acknowledging the fact that we aren’t usually as successful as our peers. What’s not clicking starbucks spellman.”
Replying to even more criticism, he added: “It’s a million n***as in the industry that make nothing but songs about women and y’all don’t complain.
“But I make my first song about a n***a and now it’s my entire artistry. Y’all crack me up man.”
Lil Nas X’s hit new single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” has been the most listened-to song in the entire world for the last two weeks. The track even topped the charts in Saudi Arabia, where gay sex is punishable by death.
The song about gay sex hit the top of the Billboard Global 200, which ranks the world’s top tracks based on data from more than 200 territories, on Monday (12 April), knocking Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” down to number two.
“Old Town Road” peaked at 70th position in the global charts.
Upon releasing the video, Lil Nas X released a letter he’d penned to his teenage self.
“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,” he wrote.
“You see this is very scary for me, people will be angry, they will say I’m pushing an agenda.
“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.”
