“Montero”
Lil Nas X
The first time I saw the music video “Montero” was this year in 2022. Fortunately, when it originally came out, Lil Nas X sliding down a stripper pole to hell would inscribe in my mind. As me and my queer friend texted back and forth about it, then seeing him kiss another black man during a live performance, he said “now THIS is the gay agenda”. We loved it.
A person who didn’t like it was my ex-boyfriend. Who was very much used homophobic rhetoric and very much thought that him sliding down to hell and wearing fake boobs was emasculating. He was a rapper too and would he have to do this to gain attraction as well? It was bullshit and of course I defended Lil Nas X. I’m like, “he could do whatever he wants, it’s his music”. His art. I never understood why other people cared so much about what other people do. But I wish I could go back to that conversation and educate him about how deep the music video “Montero” is. It’s Afro-Futuristic, brilliant, creative and creates a new way for Black gay men in the music industry. Lil Nas X is a Gen Z icon. Might be a little bit of a troll but we love a person who stays true to their pre-famous selves. 😉
So how is Montero Afro-Futuristic? Afro-futurism can be a multitude of things but how I’m learning and how I’m seeing it, is a way of using history, technology and the African diaspora to create art. Lil Nas X being a Black man creates this whole new world using technology for his song “Montero: Call Me By Your Name”. In, “Historians Decode the Religious Symbolism and Queer Iconography of Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero’ Video”, the music video is “stuffed with Greco-Roman and medieval Christian motifs and messages in both Greek and Latin.” Using this history to tell a story that many people in the LGBTQ+ community can relate to. The “deeply researched” music video “ builds a powerful historical narrative that centers queerness in historical and religious spaces where it is too often erased.” A digital world straight from the mind of a young gay Black artist. One that outraged many people (including my ex).
Why is this so important? Because! It gives room for Black individuals to exist in spaces that were not originally meant for them. For Black people to reclaim their histories and make it their own. A queer space to align with and out of the bounds of this very straight, heteronormative, and anachronistic society. I hope more artists push the boundaries because we belong in the future, the past, and the present. We deserve to make our own definitions of freedom even if that’s sliding down a magical pole to hell and twerking on a devil-like being.
