Lil Nas X has tall goals for himself and his career.
The 22-year-old covers Variety Magazine‘s Power of Young Hollywood Issue and seized the moment to pose it up and dish on many a topic.
Ever candid, the Pop provocateur did not hold back when unpacking his desire to be a “self-made legend,” finding love, homophobia in Hip-Hop, and hiring more security after shaking up the scene with ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name).’
Nas also opened up about his forthcoming debut album (due this summer), which is also titled ‘Montero.’
Peep pics and quotes below…
On His Approach To Stardom:
“I’m always trying to give people a show, you know? While also pointing out the flaws in society. I have a goal in my head for where I want to be, but my entire life and career has been just going in and winging it. Some things work really well and some don’t work at all, and a lot of them are very much last minute — like, I planned the BET kiss literally a day or two before it happened. I just use anything that comes at me to my advantage, even things that others may see as a disadvantage.”
On Meeting Beyonce & Dancing With Her At Her Halloween Party:
“She just said she’s super proud of me and to keep going; it was a next-level experience”
On Love:
“I’ve had some good boyfriends and some bad ones. A lot of them were emotionally unavailable or had a lot of insecurity.” But he says he’s found someone special now. “I think this is the one. I can’t explain it — it’s just a feeling.”
On Learning Self-Love:
“[Encountering homophobia] bred a lot of self-hate. But it also made me stronger. Once I was 17 or 18, I finally accepted it — like, for sure accepted it, slowly, more and more — and now I’ve grown into a person that is 100% open with it.”
On Not Speaking About Homophobia In Rap:
“The honest truth is, I don’t want to speak on a lot of the homophobia within rap because I feel like this is a very dangerous playing field. It’s more for my own safety rather than anything else.”
On Ramping Up Security:
“Yeah [I feel unsafe], a lot of times, absolutely,” he says. “Especially after [‘Montero’]. There was literally someone who chased my car a few days after that video came out, yelling, ‘F*ck you!’ or something. And that’s when I actually started getting security.” Although he’s not sure the video is what caused this stranger to pursue him, “I feel like it couldn’t be a coincidence.”
Excerpt On His Forthcoming Album:
He shares only general details about his album: In addition to being “much more personal” lyrically, it is as musically diverse as “7,” his 2019 debut EP, but “much more cohesive.”
On Almost Starring In Euphoria:
“I was actually going to do ‘Euphoria,’ but I didn’t want to take time away from finishing my album. I definitely want to get into acting, but I feel I have to give it my all, and I want to focus on music for right now. I want my first movie to be amazing.”
On How He Spent Lockdown:
“I think I spent all of the pandemic making music and crying — no in-betweens. For the first month or so, I did not leave my house, and once I did, I was super overly critical of everything I was making. I was letting everything online get to me and feeling like things were over for me.”
On Her Being A Twitter Stan In Earlier Life Is Informing His Stardom Now:
“Being on stan Twitter as a whole, I learned a lot about the things that artists have to go through and also a lot of music industry history. It’s helping me a lot.”