Portrait
Lil Nas X
Born
9 April 1999Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Rapper and singerUnited States

Lil Nas X

Lil Nas X brought a playful, openly gay Black perspective into mainstream pop, challenging musical categories and religious shame.

Montero Lamar Hill, known as Lil Nas X, was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1999. He grew up around the city and developed an early understanding of online audiences, using social media to build attention for his music.

“Old Town Road”, released in 2018, mixed country imagery with rap. A remix with Billy Ray Cyrus helped carry it to nineteen weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 2019. While the song was still topping the chart, Lil Nas X came out as gay during Pride Month.

His later work made queer desire more explicit. In the video for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” (2021), he transformed imagery of temptation, punishment and hell into a defiant performance of sexual freedom. The video provoked controversy while resonating with listeners familiar with religious shame.

His debut album “Montero” received an Album of the Year Grammy nomination. Two Grammy wins for “Old Town Road” recognised a breakthrough that had already unsettled assumptions about genre, race and who could occupy the centre of popular music.

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