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Lil Nas X’s Return Is More Than a Second Coming
His breezy comeback single arrived on the prickliest possible battlefield.
The new song is breezy and carefree, a viable successor to triumphant rhyme performances like “Industry Baby.” Lil Nas has chosen the prickliest possible battlefield to herald the new creative era he’s signaling: the iconography of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Over the last month, Lil Nas X has wolfed down sacramental wafers and guzzled drinks from a communion tray while wearing a purple-and-white toga on Instagram and referenced the Jesus Mecha Christ meme in a promotional short, and his detractors in rap and politics pounced. Squint, and spectacle vaguely resembles the flak over Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” video: Yes, this Black Jesus routine is devised to ruffle feathers, but we could be discussing the chaotic “he that is the least among you shall be great” story it’s telling, the optics of that walk in that room, of cosplaying afterlife power and glory in the midst of a spirit-breaking present.
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