Scroll down for a look at the public conversation so far. Watching the rapper twerk atop a swole zaddy Satan in the video is redolent with symbolism: as Lil Nas X put it in a press release, it was intended as a nod to homophobes who accuse gay people of. The rapper is famously straightforward on social media, and he has weighed in on the controversy there several times since the video came out on Friday. While fans and critics react publicly to the video, Lil Nas X has been reacting publicly to those reactions as well.
In either case, it is all the more surprising to see this video from the young rapper who became famous for 'Old Town Road.' And, more specifically, neither is the devil as a red, gay man. At the same time, fans are praising the video for pushing the conversation on LGBTQ+ expression forward. Lil Nas X reclaims the tropes that were used to design these villains. Naturally, this kind of evocative imagery has sparked some controversy around the young rapper, but that's no accident. He then dances seductively through the last verse and chorus of his song before snapping the devil's neck, taking his horns for himself, and sprouting black angel's wings. Ignoring the symbolic interpretations of the video, most viewers have been preoccupied with the last third of it, where Lil Nas X slides down a long pole into Hell and meets the devil on a throne. The 'MONTERO' music video is a CGI-heavy odyssey from the Garden of Eden to Heaven and back again, populated mostly by reflections of Lil Nas X himself.
