Lil Nas X continues to break barriers. After scoring the song of the summer with his country/hip-hop crossover smash “Old Town Road” (which has been stationed at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks and has made Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Rhythmic Songs, and Dance/Mix Show Airplay charts), and even performing the tune with Billy Ray Cyrus at both the BET Awards and Stagecoach Festival, the genre-blurring Atlanta rapper has seemingly come out as gay on the last day of Pride Month.
“Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care, some of y’all not gone fwm [f*** with me] no more. But before this month ends I want y’all to listen closely to ‘C7osure,’” Nas tweeted Sunday, referring to a track on his recently released debut EP, 7. He notably punctuated the tweet with a rainbow emoji.
Key “C7osure” lyrics include “I want and I need to let go/Use my time to be free” and “Pack my past up in the back, oh, let my future take a hold/This is what I gotta do, can't be regretting when I'm old… Embracing this news I behold unfolding/I know, I know, I know it don't feel like it's time/But I look back at this moment, I'll see that I'm fine” — words whose meaning fans are now understanding with fresh ears.
Nas followed up with a second tweet Sunday afternoon that simply stated, “Deadass thought I made it obvious,” with a closeup shot of rainbow imagery in his EP’s cover art.
Lil Nas X’s revelation is especially brave considering that the country and hip-hop fanbases have been historically conservative and sometimes downright reactionary when it comes to homosexuality, and it is very early in Nas’s career for him to take such a risk. But reaction on Twitter has been largely celebratory and encouraging.
Nas’s Twitter announcement arrives in a week when mainstream country music artists Miranda Lambert and Jake Owen have both expressed their support for the LGBTQ community.
Yahoo Entertainment has reached out to Lil Nas X’s reps for comment.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
· Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus receive warm welcome during historic BET Awards performance
· Country star Jake Owen shows off surprising rap skills, defends Lil Nas X, mourns Nipsey Hussle
· A ‘progressive twist’: Country star Kelsea Ballerini picks R&B tune on ‘Songland’
· Pop prodigy MNEK on being a black gay role model: 'There's nothing wrong with being myself'
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