The name Lil Nas X might not ring a bell. However, the 21-year-old singer got popular in the music industry in 2019 after dropping his cowboy smash hit single ‘Old Town Road’ featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, a popular country singer and father to the famous Miley Cyrus. The song challenged the music industry and caused a lot of controversies as many people did not accept him as a country music singer because of his skin colour.
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However, ‘Old Town Road’ became a viral song beyond everyone’s expectation and went ahead to bag many awards, including 2 Grammys. He also bagged 4 Billboard awards after Old Town Road wasn’t accepted in the Country Music Category. Since then, the singer has released other hit singles such as Panini, Holiday and Rodeo and a few others.
Lil Nas X faced a lot of backlash after coming out as gay on the last day of Pride Month in June of 2019. Fast forward to 2021, his latest music video for his single Montero (Call Me By Your Name) sparkled a lot of shocking reactions. The video started off with him playing music in a garden that looked like the garden of Eden, obviously taking reference from the bible and in his video, he was also approached by a snake which slithered towards him, next thing we know, the snake which disturbing looked like him started having intercourse with Lil Nax X. In the next chapter, Lil Nax X is taking into court and is about to get punished for getting freaky with the snake in what looked like a roman court.
In the next scene, he can be seen floating up to heaven, and all of a sudden, he slides down on a strip pole to hell, and the next thing we see, he is in hell dancing and performing an inappropriate act on the devil himself. While the devil was distracted at the end, he slashed the devil’s throat, killing him and becomes the devil at the end of the video. And this scene was actually the part that causes a lot of controversies, especially as Lil Nas X has many young fans, many questions what the video message is all about.
However, according to Lil Nas X, the video was made for his 14-year-old self as he reflects on being told that he will be judged and eventually go to hell for being gay.
To add more fire to the controversy, the singer released a shoe line called ‘satan shoes’ and claimed that each special shoe has a drop of real human blood. What’s shocking is that Lil Nas X limited Satan shoes sold out in under one minute while his latest single Montero (Call Me By Your Name) received over 10M streams within 24 hours.
The trainers with an inverted cross, pentagram, and Bible scripture ‘Luke 10:18,” at the top looked like a modified Nike Air Max 97s and sold for 1 $1,018 (£740)each. Each shoe had a signature Nike air bubble cushioning sole and contain 60 cubic centimetres (2.03 fluid ounces) of red ink and a single drop of real human blood, donated by members of the art collective.
MSCHF released 666 pairs of the black and red shoes on Monday, March 30th 2021 and reportedly sold everything in less than a minute, just around the same time Lil Nas X launched his latest controversial song. They were the shoes Lil Nas X wore as he slides down a stripper pole from heaven to hell.
Nike is claiming trademark infringement and suing Lil Nax X and Brooklyn art collective MSCHF over the controversial pair of satan shoes containing a drop of real human blood.
Nike has reportedly taken the case to US District Court in the Ester District of New York and said they’re not involved or approved the customised Satan Shoes. And Nike is demanding MSCHF stop selling the shoes and stop using their trademark.
The controversy is causing Nike and many people are boycotting their product, saying they are not supporting the Satan shoe. Many initially believed Nike authorised or approved the 666 shoes.
Lil Nas X new music video and new shoes line has also been condemned by many people, especially religious followers who believe he is going a little too far with his work of art.
In the wake of all the controversy, Lil Nas X has finally reacted via Twitter with several memes over being sued by Nike, laughing it out he is asking people to dream his music.
Do you think Lil Nas X is going too far?
