When "Old Town Road" rapper and chart-topping Billboard Hot 100 artist Lil Nas X came out of the closet during the tail end of Pride Month last month, he was met with an overwhelming amount of support from fans who know how groundbreaking it is to have an out and visible figure in the hip hop scene. Unfortunately, though, not everyone feels that same way.
In a recent interview with the No Jumper YouTube channel, fellow rapper Young Thug, who recently collaborated with Lil Nas X for a remix of his hit "Old Town Road," expressed some concern about the 20-year-old artist's decision to go public with his sexuality, saying he thinks he shouldn't have.
"He shouldn’t have told the world because it’s like, these days, motherf***ers, it’s just all judgement. Motherfuckers just judging. It ain’t even about the music no more," Young Thug told No Jumper. "Once you found out he was gay, as soon as that song come on now, everybody’s like, 'This gay ass n****.' N****s don’t even care to listen to the song no more."
He continued, clarifying:
"It wasn’t a bad idea, and it was most definitely the best time to do it, during Pride. That was the best time to do it. That was a G’s move. But it’s like, he’s young, and I know what he’s going to be dealing with in his mind. I've dealt with this shit before. I know what he’s dealing with, so I was like, 'Fuck, he should never have said that.'"
While we understand Young Thug is obviously coming from a place of concern, perhaps there was a better way for him to say it. All genres of mainstream music still have a long, long, long way to go when it comes to the success of openly queer artists, and the only way for LGBTQ+ musicians to be taken seriously and to be more accepted is for there to be more visibility, not less.
"It’s something I was considering never doing, ever. Taking to the grave" Lil Nas X himself admitted in a recent interview with the BBC about why he ultimately decided to come out. "But I don’t wanna just live my entire life — especially how I just got to where I’m at — just like, not doing what I wanna do."
