“Live your life to its fullest potential and don’t really care too much about what other people think of you.”
Talented, intelligent, witty, brave, unstoppable, kind, unique, and amazing, are just a few of the adjectives that describe the phenomenal human known as Lil Nas X. But words are inadequate to fully convey his spirit, his heart, or his genius. He has broken through barriers, shattered records, and blazed his own trail to success.
Born and raised in the Atlanta metropolitan area, he came from humble beginnings. During his teen years he became interested in the internet and social media, developing the skills that would help him launch his career. He majored in computer science at the University of West Georgia, but he left to pursue his true passion, music. He paid $30 to purchase a beat for which he wrote lyrics. Then he went to a small recording studio’s “$20 Tuesdays” where he spent an hour recording the song. Using his computer skills he promoted that song all over the internet. That song, “Old Town Road” became an internet sensation. Eventually it reached the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, where it stayed for an unprecedented nineteen weeks. Lil Nas X won numerous awards, including two Grammys.
While many other artists have let that level of success go to their heads, Lil Nax X has used his success to help others. After coming out as gay on Instagram, he donated $100,000 to the Trevor Project to help LGBTQIA+ people. His first full length album, Montero, was released with a Baby Registry, a list of sixteen charities to which he wanted people to donate money. Many of his songs and videos tell of his struggles growing up in the south as a gay, person of color, with the hope that people dealing with similar struggles will realize they are not alone, that they should be true to themselves.
Lil Nas X doesn’t let the opinions of others stop him from being true to himself. Just as his music career was taking off, he came out as gay, That was a risky move considering there is a lot of homophobia in two of the communities that helped launch his career, country music and hip-hop. When rapper Pastor Troy made disparaging remarks about the outfit Lil Nas X wore to the Grammys in 2020, Lil Nas X simply replied, “Damn I look good in that pic on god.” He uses his wit to let critics know they aren’t going to deter him from letting his light shine. His humorous retorts to negative comments earned him the title of “Clapback Champ” from the New York Times.”
“Lil Nas X is a new twist on some of the themes I was riding on when I first started out: being true to yourself and not giving a fuck what anyone says. What he’s doing is what we need right now.”
Kid Cudi