The backlash against Lil Nas X’s new music is apparently making him lose a hefty amount of followers.
The 24-year-old, openly gay rapper has come a long way since his breakthrough single, “Old Town Road” in 2019. Two years later, Nas X turned heads with his controversial music video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” where he gives a lap dance to Satan.
In November, Nas X announced that he was entering his “Christian era” with his next music releases and called out his critics for calling his pivot a “gimmick.”
Despite the criticism and accusations of devil worship, Nas X released the music video for his latest single “J Christ” on Jan. 12 featuring even more religious imagery, including a portrayal of his own crucifixion.
Days after “J Christ” dropped, Nas X took to social media to explain where his head was at during the making of the visuals.
"I wanted to... not necessarily apologize but I wanted to explain, like, where my head at and where it's been for like the last week… So first of all, when I did the artwork, I knew there would be some upset people or whatnot, simply 'cause religion's a very sensitive topic for a lot of people," he said at the time. "But I also didn't mean to mock. This wasn't like a 'Fuck you to you people,' 'Fuck you to the Christians.' It was not that, it was literally me saying I'm back like Jesus."
The explanation may not have been enough for some of his fans on social media. As pointed out by BestAUCasinoSites and confirmed by Complex, Lil Nas X has lost nearly 140,000 followers on Instagram.
According to Social Blade, a social media analytics tracking website, Nas X had 11.5 million Instagram followers on Jan. 7.
Nas X then lost an estimated 17,000 followers on Jan. 8 when he revealed the single artwork for “J. Christ,” and another 20,000 the following day.
The rapper took the biggest hit on Jan. 12, when the “J Christ” video was released, losing a whopping 46,000 of his followers on a single day. His follower count continued to dip in the days following, bringing him to a deficit of 137,507 fans as of Wednesday.
Doja Cat, who also faced some backlash for alleged satanic imagery in her visuals for “Paint the Town Red” and “Demons,” lost nearly half a million followers on Instagram when she refused to tell her fans that she loves them.
On Thursday, Lil Nas X revealed the trailer for his HBO original documentary, Long Live Montero, which will premiere on Jan. 27 on Max.
