“It was just me acting really hard,” he admits. The track, Shame, saw Nas lean into the rough-edged, macho qualities of the rap styles he grew up listening to: Drake, Lil Uzi Vert and Rae Sremmurd. One day, while procrastinating over his course work, he wrote his first song. He slept on the floor of his sister’s apartment and was about to drop out of college, giving up on the computer science major he half-heartedly pursued at the University of West Georgia. Just two years ago, he was a silly, meme-loving 18-year-old who was still figuring it out. “It was like the world was playing a prank on me.”Ĭorset: Zana Bayne. “Everything seemed like a dream or a movie,” Nas says of his whirlwind 2019, culminating in six Grammy nominations, including best record for Old Town Road and best album for 2019’s 7. The crossover hit was embraced by everyone from Rolling Stone magazine to teens on TikTok, prompting Lil Nas X to quickly release a version featuring country titan Billy Ray Cyrus, known to one generation for his 1992 hit Achy Breaky Heart, and another for being Miley’s dad.
The key to this success has been his track Old Town Road, an infectious blend of hip hop and country, right down to lyrics such as “Ridin’ on a tractor/Lean all in my bladder” and “Cowboy hat from Gucci/Wrangler on my booty”. He is simultaneously a Gen-Z success story, red carpet fixture, Billboard record holder and, perhaps most surprising to Lil Nas X himself, a queer figurehead. In 12 months, he has gone from “the black cowboy with the song on TikTok” to a global superstar. Today, 20-year-old Lil Nas X (Nas to his friends) is a far cry from his teenage self, Montero Lamar Hill from Lithia Springs. Since making his comments at Rolling Loud, DaBaby has doubled down on his comments about HIV and AIDS, then walked back those same comments, and most recently, doubled down on them once again with his music video for “Giving What It’s Supposed to Give,” where he rapped the lyrics “Bi-, we like AIDS, I’m on your a–, we on your a–, bi-, we won’t go away.Suit: Givenchy. The “Dancing With the Devil” singer captioned their post by quoting a tweet by Bernstein on the subject: “Hot people listen to the original version of levitating.” and Badazz for his comments, many more have condemned his comments, including Dua Lipa, Elton John, Questlove, GLAAD and Demi Lovato, who reposted makeup artist Matt Bernstien’s post about DaBaby’s comments, prominently featuring a photo of the words “HIV is not a gay disease” painted on someone’s chest. While DaBaby has received support from artists such as T.I. “I’m starting to think you n-s gay too cuz y’all stay on my d-,” he wrote in one tweet, following it up later, saying, “Some of y’all not even mad that I’m gay, some of y’all mad that I’m gay and still succeeding.” and others who have come out against his latest video, saying that their obsession with him has maybe gone a little too far. The 22-year-old rapper also threw indirect shade at Badazz, T.I. Questlove Condemns DaBaby For His Homophobic Rant: 'His Actions Are Wrong' Naturally, the link immediately led to his music video for “Industry Baby.” “I usually don’t respond to negativity from my peers. The “Industry Baby” rapper also retweeted a link, claiming to lead to video in which he would address both Badazz and T.I.’s comments. Nas X didn’t stop his responses there, though. “You don’t f- with him like you f- with DaBaby,” he said. In other excerpts from the live rant, Boosie made similar claims to T.I., who defended DaBaby earlier in the week, claiming that there was some kind of double standard in the way people treated DaBaby versus how they’ve treated Lil Nas X. He also commented on a tweet Lil Nas X put out, joking that he and Jack Harlow would perform the song naked at the VMAs for charity, saying, “If I’m at the awards and he go up there naked, I’ma drag his a– offstage and beat his a–.”
The response came after Badazz’s rant, in which the rapper defended DaBaby’s homophobic comments about HIV and AIDS at Rolling Loud Miami, while also going after Lil Nas X and calling him “the most disrespectful motherf-er in the world,” along with using multiple homophobic slurs.