Lil Nas X’s New Video Is More Than a Homoerotic Prison Romp

Author: Neal Broverman

Out music superstar Lil Nas X just released the video to his latest single off his debut album, Montero, and it’s another visual delight.

The epic “Industry Baby” begins with Nas being thrown in “Montero State Prison,” depicted as a gay fantasia filled with pink jumpsuits, dance routines in the shower, and chiseled men working out and rubbing up against each other. Gay Arrow star Colton Haynes even has a cameo as a horny queer cop that Nas knocks out with one punch as he makes his escape from the clink. The one straight aspect may be Jack Harlow, the straight rapper who duets with Nas on the single.

The video received rapturous praise from gay Twitter, seeing it as another act of Nas’s subversion against the straight white male establishment, akin to the video for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name).” But the video has ambitions beyond expressing a bold queer sensibility: It also serves as a fundraiser for the Bail Project, a “national nonprofit organization on a mission to end cash bail, one of the key drivers of mass incarceration and structural racism in the U.S. criminal legal system.” 

Nas wrote the following on the Bail Project’s fundraising page:

“Hi,

It’s me, Lil Nas X.

Music is the way I fight for liberation. It’s my act of resistance.

But I also know that true freedom requires real change in how the criminal justice system works. Starting with cash bail.

This isn’t just theoretical for me. It’s personal. I know the pain that incarceration brings to a family. And I know the disproportionate impact that cash bail has on Black Americans.

People like Vita from New Orleans, Kamren from Austin, and Leticia from Baton Rouge—their stories remind us why we must take action.

So I’m doing something about it and I invite you to join me. Ending cash bail is one of the most important civil rights issues of our time. Donate what you can to the Bail X Fund.

Let’s bring people home & let’s fight for freedom and equality.”

The Bail Project indicated it’s already made millions in donations thanks to Nas. Donate here and learn more here about how cash bail disproportionately affects low-income individuals and people of color.

Original Article on The Advocate
Author: Neal Broverman