After pole dancing his way into hell and grinding on the devil, Lil Nas X is ready to climb his way back up to the pearly gates with an enchanting new clip.
In a tweet on Wednesday evening (Nov. 29), the “Industry Baby” singer shared a video of himself lip-syncing to an unreleased song. Dressed in a long denim skirt and a T-shirt saying “if God doesn’t exist, then who’s laughing at us?,” Lil Nas sang out a prayer in the new clip. “Father stretch my hands/ The lonely road seems to last the longest,” he crooned. “Help me with my plans/ Everything seems to go nowhere.”
Calling on “angels” to help him “keep my faith” at the end of the clip, the 24-year-old made his intentions crystal clear in the clip’s caption. “y’all mind if i enter my christian era,” he asked his followers.
Of course, releasing a gospel-adjacent song doesn’t change who Lil Nas is at his core — a top-tier troll. When some X users began criticizing the rapper for “mocking” Christianity, he made sure to put them in their place. “making christian music does not mean i can’t suck d–k no more,” he wrote. “the two are not mutually exclusive. i am allowed to get on my knees for multiple reasons.” When one user tried to clap back and tell the singer that’s “not how Christianity works,” Nas was swift in his response: “watch out everybody it’s the christianity correctional officer.”
While Lil Nas was more than happy to mess with trolls and joke about his shift in sound, he did get very real with his audience, asking them to take his music a little bit more seriously. “y’all see everything i do as a gimmick. when in reality im just an artist expressing myself in different ways,” he wrote. “whether im a cowboy, gay, satanic, or now christian y’all find a problem! y’all don’t police nobody else art like mine. y’all hate me because im fun cute and petite.”
Billboard has reached out to representatives for Lil Nas X for more information on the release of his new song.
The new song clip comes amid a quiet period for the “Old Town Road” singer. His last single “Star Walkin’,” a collaboration with the multiplayer online game League of Legends, was released in September 2022, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following October.
Lil Nas is well aware that his fans miss hearing new music from him: In a tweet mimicking Spotify Wrapped posts from other artists, the rapper joked that he earned a grand total of 2 streams in 2023. “damn not releasing music really starting to take a toll on my career,” he quipped.
Check out the full teaser for Lil Nas X’s stirring new song below.
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