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How Lil Nas X’s Montero Harnessed The Power Of Social Media Controversy

Fern McErlane

Fern McErlane

Ozzy Osbourne’s artistic reputation was sealed the moment he bit the head off a live dove, seconds after signing his first solo record deal. Heavy metal Satanist. Not music for your children. 

When he repeated this act the following year, biting the head off of an allegedly also live bat at a concert in Iowa, the legend only grew. It quickly became one of the most recognisable tales in the industry and amongst fans. The image of Ozzy is now inextricably linked with rodent gore, for better or for worse.

It’s a little harder for artists to drum up controversy nowadays. Videos of bat-head-biting don’t tend to trend on Twitter, and most likely (and hopefully) wouldn’t make it past algorithmic social media ban bots anyway. So what can musicians now do to whip up a frenzy around their music?

Lil Nas X’s Montero was a study in social media music promotion. Spanning every social media site, promos for the album were instantly recognisable, entrenched in meme culture – and deeply unpopular with conservative, homophobic critics, whose responses fuelled the rapper.

But Lil Nas X’s behemoth online presence didn’t start with this album alone.

Montero, the social media maestro

Lil Nas X’s career was perfectly poised to blow up online from the outset. TikTok’s influence on what’s hot is incomparable, and it’s changed the face of music – but it’s also organic. Industry plants are easily detectable online (cough Tramp Stamps) and authenticity remains king. Perhaps Lil Nas X knew this when he began uploading ‘Old Town Road’ to the clock app himself, waiting for it to be discovered.

“I promoted the song as a meme for months until it caught on to TikTok and it became way bigger,” he told Time in 2019. “When I became a trending topic on there, it was a crazy moment for me. A lot of people will try to downplay it, but I saw it as something bigger.”

In the current culture of Dadaistic-resurgence humour – read memes – what could be more iconic than a swaggering, rapping cowboy? And what could be funnier than using this music to transform into one yourself? Thus, a meme was born. #yeehaw.

https://www.tiktok.com/@mytiktokcats/video/6664768627398413574?refer=embed

One TikTok following the cowboy transformation trend.

The track quickly hit the Billboard charts, and was equally as quickly removed. When Billy Rae Cyrus stepped in and helped send ‘Old Town Road’ straight up to the number one spot, it seemed that Lil Nas X’s career was set.

After the success of ‘Old Town Road’, many may have expected Lil Nas X’s cowboy image to become a motif, his recognisable costume. They may have expected him to keep making cowboy rap and stay in his lane. They would’ve been wrong.

When Lil Nas X then joined the small number of contemporary male rap artists to come out as gay, there was immense homophobic backlash. Publications flurried to denounce ‘homophobic hip hop’ – but it wasn’t just from inside the genre. With Lil Nas X’s music spilling over into pop and the mainstream, it became more accessible globally to fans and critics alike. His social media was flooded with rampant homophobia – a great deal of it being from conservative Americans.

Luckily for us, Lil Nas X decided not to take this quietly – and his next single was a direct response to the homophobia he faced.

Montero, the controversial

‘Call Me By Your Name’ was first teased in July 2020; the teaser gained almost 500k likes on Twitter as fans rallied behind this potential new gay anthem, named after the infamous LGBTQ+ romance book and film. When the track finally dropped on 26th March 2021, it was alongside a confirmation of the upcoming album Montero – and a gorgeous music video.

The video playfully and bravely engaged with notions of ‘the gay agenda’ – employing easily recognisable biblical imagery, and flipping it to fit Lil Nas X’s vision. The singer features as a queer Adam in the garden of Eden, pole dancing down into hell and lap dancing for the devil. It’s a clear rebellion against the religious condemnation of queer desires – and it definitely upset religious, right-wing opposers. The Guardian noted that ‘conservative politicians and commentators’ said the track ‘encourages devil worshiping and scandalizes young fans’. Lil Nas X was having none of it.

However, in his typically chronically-online fashion, Lil Nas X leant into the controversy with humour. All press is good press, as they say. When a pastor publicly condemned the religious imagery used, Lil Nas X simply laughed on Twitter.

The rapper was only just getting started; the social media promotion for Montero officially kicked off with a series of spoof billboards repackaging the criticisms and hate directed at him – such as ‘Gay? You may be entitled to financial compensation.’

It wasn’t long after that his ‘Industry Baby’ was announced. Lil Nas X was knocked up and glowing. Baby Montero harnessed the power of expected controversy – the images blew up online through pure shock value, with his first maternity shoot Tweet gaining 191k likes and 17.5k retweets. Best of all, it was clear that Lil Nas X was absolutely loving every second of wearing this fake baby belly. The maternity photoshoot pictures just kept coming.

Image credits: Lil Nas X, Instagram

Almost every single following promo image for Montero featured the singer as naked as the day he was born, only just barely sliding past social media censoring with coy, careful angles. And he was everywhere. Homophobic critics simply couldn’t engage with the tweets without resharing these images of a buff, naked gay man. Lil Nas X shared that though he did just like being naked, his nudity also symbolised rebirth (however, the album cover was also inspired, he alleged, by Spongebob.) Baby Montero ushered in a new era of unabashed queer pride and self-acceptance for the artist.

The most direct strike against the opposition was the marketing stunt ‘Satan Shoes’. The uproar around the religious iconography in ‘Call Me By Your Name’ inspired Lil Nas X to collaborate with the art collective MSCHF, and release his very own design of Nike Air Max 97s in March 2021. They sold out in under a minute. Why was this notable? Because each shoe was emblazoned with inverted crosses, pentagrams, and each air bubble sole contained ‘one drop’ of real human blood.

Whilst the intended controversy is obvious, it’s unclear if Lil Nas X and his team predicted the legal backlash. Nike responded with a trademark infringement lawsuit over the usage of their shoes. Hilariously, the case drew the attention of conservative government officials: one, a South Dakota governor, captioned a retweet of the shoes: “We are in a fight for the soul of our nation. We need to fight hard. And we need to fight smart. We have to win.”

Lil Nas X responded with – you guessed it – an onslaught of Twitter memes.

After provoking U.S. government officials, conservative Christians, and one of the world’s biggest and most recognisable shoe companies, all eyes were on Montero. The media was continually in a frenzy. By inciting reactions from his biggest critics, Lil Nas X drew more and more attention to his music. Every second of album promotion was meticulously posted online. W Magazine noted that the entire album campaign was ‘practically performance art’. Montero entered the Billboard 200 albums charts at number two, selling 126,000 copies in its first week.

Montero, the passionate and unapologetic

Lil Nas X’s social media influence is undeniable; even back in 2019, Time named him one of their 25 Most Influential People on the Internet. But controversy does not a good musician make. If Ozzy’s music wasn’t popular or enjoyable to many, his bat-biting publicity stunt would’ve had a very different response.

‘People love what other people are passionate about’, says Emma Stone in 2016’s La La Land. It seems to be true; if memes and controversy are what draw attention to Lil Nas X, his talent and passion is what makes people stay and listen. ‘Old Town Road’ didn’t hit the charts just because it was funny, but because it was good – an original blend of nostalgic country sound and swaggering, clever rap, something Lil Nas X really wanted other people to hear.
Passion is now a very recognisable cornerstone of Lil Nas X’s music. Each song on Montero devotedly focuses on his experiences and self-acceptance as a Black gay man, something that resonates with and inspires his fans.

It wasn’t always this way: it took real courage for him to come out publicly, fearing he’d lose fans, as he told Time: “I know the people who listen to this the most, and they’re not accepting of homosexuality.” He was raised to believe that homosexuality “is never going to be O.K”. His Christian-baiting antics reflect a very real previous inner turmoil and turn it outward.

When Lil Nas X chose to represent himself unapologetically – each promo image displaying real self love and pride – it served its purpose in dividing those who saw it. Lil Nas X doesn’t pretend to be unaware of his opposers – in fact, he embraces them. After all, they made him what he is now.

Featured image courtesy of PhotoMIX-Company on Pixabay. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.

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