Lil Nas X has stated in a recent interview that he will not be engaging in the current homophobia in rap discourse, for his “own safety”.
Speaking with Variety, Lil Nas X has declined directly addressing the topic, as he said, “The honest truth is, I don’t want to speak on a lot of the homophobia within rap because I feel like this is a very dangerous playing field. It’s more for my own safety rather than anything else.”
The interviewer then goes onto ask the ‘Industry Baby’ rapper if this means he has felt unsafe in the industry. His response is the affirmative, however he’s not 100% sure if this is linked to the release of his ‘Montero’ video.
But on that he said, “I feel like it couldn’t be a coincidence.”
Nas said, “Yeah, a lot of times, absolutely. Especially after [‘Montero’]. There was literally someone who chased my car a few days after that video came out, yelling, ‘Fuck you!’ or something.”
“And that’s when I actually started getting security.”
Reflecting on the last year or so, Nas said that he’s been “making music and crying”.
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Nas continued, “I think I spent all of the pandemic making music and crying — no in-betweens.”
“For the first month or so, I did not leave my house, and once I did, I was super overly critical of everything I was making. I was letting everything online get to me and feeling like things were over for me.”
But there’s a positive side to this. Nas said, “Honestly, I believe the pandemic helped me get out of the idea of trying to please everybody, and the idea of ‘He’s a cool gay person; he’s an acceptable gay person.’”
“I’m much more confident now — in my music, myself, my sexuality, the things that I believe that I stand for.”
For more on this topic, follow the Hip Hop Observer.
