BY: JOSEPH DEBELL, OPINION EDITOR
Photo courtesy @lilnasx on Instagram
If many sought-after and heterosexual hip-hop artists can depict themselves as Jesus Christ or place themselves on a crucifix with little to no backlash, why are people upset when Lil Nas X does it? The only clear answer is that bigoted and homophobic people can’t appreciate Lil Nas X’s art due to his sexuality.
The viral sensation Lil Nas X is a gay hip-hop artist and singer. The music video for his recent single “J CHRIST” depicts him as a femme Jesus as he walks the viewer through his reenactment of biblical scenes. The video even includes multiple comical moments, such as when Lil Nas X crosses up Satin on a basketball court.
Despite the video being playful, conservative Christians, as well as some Christian hip-hop artists on X, formerly known as Twitter, didn’t get the joke and condemned it.
“This is demonic.” Christian rapper Bryson Gray posted in reaction to Lil Nas X posting the cover art to “J CHRIST.”
Yes, this video is arguably irreverent, but with the reactions to this cover art and music video, you might think Marilyn Manson returned to perform another satanic concert. However, the music video simply includes Lil Nas X dressing up as different biblical figures, and he isn’t even doing it in an overly offensive way.
Lil Nas X’s portrayal of Christ is no different than that of heterosexual hip-hop artists. Especially when those heterosexual artists who have not been the target of this level of hypocrisy and preposterousness.
Those artists being, Tupac Shakur with his album cover for “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory” showed himself being crucified. Lil Wayne would do the same thing with the cover of his album, “The Drought Is Over 7.” A more popular example is when Kanye West referred to himself as “yeezus” and wore the Crown of Thorns for a Rolling Stones magazine cover. More recently, when Kendrick Lamar wore a multi-million dollar Crown of Thorns for his more recent album cover, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.”
All of the hate for Lil Nas X stems from blind anger springing from massive persecution complexes. This anger causes the most intolerant to offend another Abrahamic religion, such as Islam. An example is when the X account Catch Up posted this.
“Lil Nas X is once again mocking Christianity to sell his music as if it hasn’t been done a thousand times before.
Now do it with Islam. Bet he won’t. No balls.”
This post is an indirect way of supporting the stigma that Muslims are more violent and aren’t civilized.
This entire situation is reminiscent of the rhetoric that the Parents Music Resource Center once used to slander other creative artists such as Prince. This proves that oftentimes, it’s the smallest things that send homophobic people into a tailspin, as the material in Lil Nas X’s music video isn’t as raunchy for its time as the material of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette.”
All of this boils down to homophobia because of the double standards that have been applied against Lil Nas X.
debelljb22@bonaventure.edu
