Popular hip-hop musician Lil Nas X finds himself under a lot of heat for his divisive video for his new song, Montero.

Three days ago, on March 26th, 2021. Montero Lamar Hill, also known as Lil Nas X,popular for his hit singles Old Town Road and Panini, launched a new music video on YouTube for his newest song, Montero (Call Me By Your Name). In the video, Lamar Hill depicts several gay acts, including a vivid sequence of him giving these very acts to the devil himself, which was up until he stole his horns and chose to bore his image; this is in relation to Nas X’s own homosexuality. Many people were disgusted at the events in the music video, and running congressman Robby Starbuck is one of them. On twitter, he expressed his own frustrations. “Then Hollywood does this: Many of these people are evil. I say this having directed a lot of these celebs,” he says.

However much flak the Lil Nas X name is receiving, one cannot deny that the attention the song is receiving is massive. As of March 29th, just 3 days after its release, the song has amassed 13.1 million streams on Spotify, debuting at #3 on the Billboard Top 200 Charts. On YouTube, the single has 36 million views to its name, earning an average of 13 million views every 24 hours. Such successful numbers are reserved for only the most popular of artists. Even with the equal amount of negative attention he’s getting, Lamar Hill is taking it all in stride. “I spent my entire teenage years hating myself because of what y’all preached would happen to me because I was gay. So I hope u are mad, stay mad, feel the same
anger you teach us to have towards ourselves,” he says.

Along with the music video came the reveal of limited edition shoes in celebration of it. As such, they bare the same themes; 666 pairs are being produced, with a pentagram shown on top and a drop of human blood being contained below. The satanic imagery in its design and in its marketing has many disgusted, both at Nas X and at Nike, who’s iconic swoosh is featured on the sneaker. Nike themselves have claimed to not align themselves with the release, and have decided to sue Nas X over the shoe, who himself is expressing the same nonchalant manner at the manner. “Y’all gotta admit… the shoes hard! You cannot sit here and lie.”

With other controversies with music artists and the public, such as the WAP events, whether one supports or doesn’t support the themes and depictions in Lil Nas X’s newest video, one cannot deny that the high numbers that the song is doing and will most likely continue to do mean that Montero Lamar Hill is here to stay.