Greetings and welcome to the second edition of Rachroobear Recommends!
Other than the millions of people getting vaxxed up, things continue to be pretty horrible in the world. I do not have the emotional capacity to recap everything that is making me sad, but that’s what the news is for! Anyway, the one thing that I can definitively say is not horrible is the release of Lil Nas X’s song/video/social media performance art, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).”
For the uninitiated/those of you who hang out at a different table in the cafeteria we call the internet, let me remind you who Lil Nas X is.
Born Montero Lamar Hill in 1999 (yes, we are officially old!), Lil Nas X reached early fame on Tik Tok with his Before Times earworm “Old Town Road.” Love it or hate it, “Old Town Road” was the country/rap sensation that launched him to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019. The song was removed from the country charts in an act of definitive racism that allegedly had “absolutely nothing to do with the race of the artist.” (That Billy Ray Cyrus was on a very popular remix is perhaps the least interesting detail of the whole story). A few months later, he came out as gay. For more biographical details, please visit his Twitter, as I have not yet signed the contract to be his official biographer. But I am down, if you’re reading this, Lil Nas X!!!
Anyway, here we are in a panini, which was, incidentally the name of one of his hits after “Old Town Road”, and he’s back with “Montero,” the hottest track yet. Not just his hottest track yet. The hottest track yet. The summer song to end all songs. Move aside, “Rain On Me.” Move aside, “WAP.” Make room for “Montero.”
The song’s debut (just before Easter/Holy Week, as some have pointed out) involved lots of fun on Twitter and Tik Tok, as well as a limited run of Satan Shoes (RIP, Nike where’s your chill?), an outraged right wing, and a video that featured an Edenic snake seduction-turned-judgment day-turned-slide down a stripper pole into hell-turned-twerk on satan-turned-become Satan moment. In other words, an instant classic.
Though some argue that the artist’s presence on Twitter is the real performance of the year, I’d argue that the song, video, and social media activity together offer us better entertainment that we deserve in the year of our lord, 2020.2. Who needs Netflix, Prime, and Hulu subscriptions when we have “Montero”? The public seems to agree, as “Montero” just reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Nicole Froio writes that Lil Nas X is following in the footsteps of artists like Lady Gaga and Madonna who have played with the themes of sin and religion in their work, but that he “adds to the queer blasphemy tradition by [inhabiting] the intersections of being Black, queer, and male.” Unlike Madonna and Lady Gaga, two conventionally attractive, white, often blonde, female pop stars, Lil Nas X is one of the first people with this specific intersection of identities to reach such prominent fame in his industry.
In the music video, Lis Nas X plays almost all the characters, and his various lewks range from the traditionally masculine display of chiseled abs to the traditionally feminine one of long hair and sparkly makeup. In addition to his race, sexual orientation, and gender, I suspect his young age also affects the reception of his music/persona and the outrage of his haters. After all, many wrongly considered “Old Town Road” a children’s song; see below.
In a recent (but pre-“Montero” release) essay, Tressie McMillan Cottom quotes Charles Hughes who suggested that Lil Nas X is like Dolly Parton in that he is joyful in his performances and embraces camp. If such a legacy is possible, I am here for it! We need his joy and campiness in these dire times!
Finally, if all this LNX content has not inspired you to embrace your true self, I will leave you with a quote from an interview on Youtube in which Lil Nas X explains his inspiration behind “Montero”: “Like ok we’re going to hell? Then let me go down there and let me be the baddest bitch in hell.”
As someone who is not yet vaccinated and unable to do what Lil Nas X sings about (feeling on a lover's ass in Hawaii), I still aspire to one day be the second baddest bitch in either hell or Hawaii, whichever comes first. And I hope to see you there. If not, I’ll see you here in two weeks!
-Rachel
Watching: When I’m not watching Montero (Call Me By Your Name) on repeat because it’s the best music video ever made (I said what I said), I’m watching:
Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil because your girl loves nothing more than empowering diva content and a well-executed GTM strategy for selling an album. | Grace and Frankie, which I am quite frankly (no pun intended) angry that nobody instructed me to watch until 2021! | Black Art: In the Absence of Light, a must-watch for anyone who thinks they know anything about art in America. | 9 to 5, because, apparently I had a Jane Fonda/Lily Tomlin deficiency up until two weeks ago.
Reading: With LNX on my mind, I’m reading about masculinity, gender, and fashion and how they intersect IRL and online.
Relinking to this one about how Lil Nas X is the king of Twitter. | This 82-year-old fashionista from my hometown who dresses up for tele-church. | Ugh, the science behind Pandemic Periods™ and why they are the worst. | A beautiful, honest acknowledgment that Sex Work Is Care Work. | The performative masculinity of TikTok thirst traps. | Vladdy P’s wintry photo shoot.
Headline of the week: Pollution is Shrinking Human Penises, Warns Scientist
Eating: The pandemic has done nothing if not reveal who we really are in the privacy of our homes. And so it has made abundantly clear that I have some basic tendencies including but not limited to: obsessing over pumpkin bread for approximately 10 days in October, drinking peppermint mochas from November to January, and becoming That Instant Pot Bitch. I said I wouldn’t do it, but I did it. And it’s worth the hype.
A few favorite Instant Pot recipes: gigantic beans, caramel salmon, black beans (sub shallot for onion/add a bay leaf), and carrot coconut soup (add ginger).
That’s all she cooked and all she wrote.