Welcome to Keeping It Z, ESSENCE’s new column where we touch on and analyze all things Generation Z. For our debut piece, writer Malik Peay spoke on Lil Nas X’s role in making Black pop music more inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ community.
On the last day of 2019’s Pride month, after weeks of sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100, Lil Nas X took to Twitter to come out as gay, choosing to bring his full self to the table.
He suspected that it may be a source of tension for his homophobic fans, writing, “[S]ome of y’all not gone fwm no more,” in the post.
Since then, the 22-year-old artist has proudly bolstered through the restrictive ideals of power players in music, joining a lineage of other fearless, gay artists.