Let’s talk about Lil Nas X’s ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’
EVERY once in a while, an artist pulls out all the stops and succeeds. There’s undeniable genius behind the pre-hype efforts of Lil Nas X’s current hit “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” Literally smeared with blood (yes, that sneaker collab stunt with human blood on it), X seized every opportunity to flaunt and flirt with critics on this one.
It’s really not the song that woke up conservatives from a long slumber. The song is catchy, recalldrawing, and beat-driven. I liked that it’s only 2:17 long like it’s all there anyway and it’s like a tribute to when songs are just songs, not a short film or a musical.
The video, on the other hand, has been the largest bull’s eye for today’s morality police. Montero the video now has its own life, nearly independent of the song.
This usually happens when you take your viewers down the bottomless pit with the wildest abandon we’ve seen in a while throwing all known cautions to the wind.
But X actually cares. You will too if you just landed the penthouse of the Billboard charts, only the second time since Old Town Road did it for X in 2019. Just check out his Twitter. He’s been answering critics, and media is picking up on every rave, rant, reply, and rebuttal—all of these efforts (this column included) just extended chart glory for X and Montero.
For those unfamiliar, Montero (Call Me By Your Name) the song refers to X’s real name (Montero Lamar Hill) and tells about a former lover of X and how they had to hide their sexuality. Call Me By Your Name is a reference to the 2017 Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer-starrer.
The “Old Town Road” singer is obviously milking every bit of the spotlight. To those barking at him for going to hell and back in order to showcase how unapologetic one should be about their sexuality, X posted, “I hope my haters are sad. I hope they are crying. I want your tears to fill my Grammy cup.”
When X returned to Billboard No. 1 days ago, he also posted: “Y’all told a 19-year-old who had just escaped the lowest point of his life that he would never have a hit again. You told him to stop while he’s ahead. He could have given up. But 4 multi-platinum songs and 2 #1s later, he’s still here. Thank you to my team and fans. ILY.”
He’d also go from a tongue-incheek post, “I really just finessed a song about f ****** a n ***** to the number 1 song in the world to” to more serious expressions of thanks with, “All jokes aside, we get to control our own destiny. Never let the world decide it for you. No matter how dark it may look, keep going.”
And stunts aside, he did just that. Complex.com put it best with a story post captioned, “Devil works hard but Lil Nas X (and the devil) work harder.”
Choosing hell for a location shoot was really worth it. As of this writing, the music video is close to 100M views in about 10 days since it was uploaded. It doesn’t matter whether you approve of the theme featuring X as various characters in Biblical and mythology-inspired scenes. Today in pop music, it’s about the count (in views) and conversations—both conquered by X from his first twerk in that video.
With a pandemic to deal with, we have our own versions of hell to contend with. Let X have his fun. We’re allowed a pass to be authentic. Just because someone’s brand of expression makes us uncomfortable doesn’t mean he’s wrong, you’re right. It’s all just a stunt, a marketing stroke of genius no one should lose sleep over.