Rapper Lil Nas X hits back at critics of music video, 'Satan Shoes'

Lil Nas X with then limited-edition sneakers Satan Shoes. PHOTO: NYTIMES

NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - One after another, they came with venom for Lil Nas X. Basketball star Nick Young. The governor of South Dakota, Ms Kristi Noem. Rapper Joyner Lucas. Candace Owens and various right-wing Twitter personalities. Greg Locke, a Tennessee pastor. Fox News. Nike.

They were clueless. Blissful, almost - lambs blind to the slaughter they were hurtling toward.

Lil Nas X was waiting for them all, barbs at his fingertips.

For the past four days - since the release of his new single, Montero (Call Me By Your Name), its masterfully absurdist erotica video and then limited-edition sneakers called Satan Shoes - the 21-year-old rapper and digital prodigy has been using his Twitter account as a fly swatter, flattening one irritant after the next in a loud and uproarious display of Internet-speed celebrity.

After Ms Noem tweeted about his Satan Shoes, Lil Nas X responded by asking her to do her job as governor, not tweeting about shoes.

Lucas suggested that the Montero video might not be appropriate for children and Lil Nas X eye-rolled back, saying he sings about adultery: "You decided to let your child listen. Blame yourself."

No famous person is as adept as Lil Nas X at casually but thoroughly smacking down the ream of Twitter churls inevitably awakened by something like this - maybe rapper Cardi B or politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

He is a grade-A Internet manipulator and, provided all the tools and resources typically reserved for long-established pop superstars, he is perfectly suited to dominate the moment.

Montero is a frisky song about lust; Lil Nas X has said it was inspired by a man he met and fell for. The video, which pivots from pastel pastoral to CGI gothic, is a wild, kaleidoscope romp of sexual self-acceptance, in which Lil Nas X pole dances his way down to hell, where he gives Satan a lap dance before killing him, stealing his horns and claiming them for himself.

That it has awakened culture warriors uncomfortable with displays of gay male desire, or with playful representations of sin, means the video has done what it was meant to do.

The same is true of the Satan Shoes he released in partnership with the company MSCHF - a Nike Air Max 97 customised with some lightly provocative references to Satan. The shoes include, allegedly, a drop of human blood in the liquid that fills the soles.

A sneaker YouTuber who was provided a pair of the shoes filmed himself throwing them down the trash chute in his apartment building. Lil Nas X, meanwhile, was posting uproarious memes about pleading for Nike's forgiveness.

Twitter is a performance space like any other, with an almost limitless audience: stans, enthusiasts, haters, trolls, skeptics, newbies. Lil Nas X has something for all of them.

In recent days, he's taunted fast food chain Chick-fil-A (which is owned by religious conservatives); poked fun at the campaign that Justin Bieber attempted to boost streams of his single Yummy; posted endless memes about his flirtations with the dark side, mock apologies for his transgressions and even headfake statements of anxiety that end as reminders to stream Montero.

All of it is memorable - not simply because of the expert skill on display but because it's clear that Lil Nas X is not simply the performer of Montero, nor simply the star of its video, nor simply the inspiration for a sneaker. He's the conductor of a symphony of thousands, maybe even millions.

It's Lil Nas X's conversation; we're all just talking in it.

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