Lil Nas X Says He Knew His “Montero” Music Video Would Be Controversial

When Lil Nas X dropped the video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” the rapper faced ridiculous accusations that he was attempting to corrupt the innocence of children. The video featured a scene in which he gave the devil a lap dance, and it came around the same time he dropped his infamous “Satan Sneakers.” In a new interview on Desus and Mero, X opened up about the backlash and revealed that he anticipated some of it but wasn’t prepared for the level it ultimately reached.

When asked about the reaction to the video, Lil Nas X joked, “I really just wanted to corrupt the youth… I’m just kidding!” After Mero commented that there was “way worse shit” in terms of extremity in music videos in the ‘90s, X added, “100 percent… Like, what’s the real reason that anyone’s still angry?”

When X was planning out the video, he admitted that he knew it was “going to hit Fox News,” but he didn’t expect “the outrage as much as it was at all, especially like governors tweeting me.” All of this criticism from government officials came during an actual pandemic, as Desus pointed out. “You don’t have anything better to do?” asked X.

When it came to the controversy surrounding his Satan-themed Nike Air Max 97s containing a single drop of human blood, he admitted that he didn’t think there would be much coverage on the subject outside of his fanbase. “I was wrong,” he laughed. The release of the shoes resulted in a lawsuit, further outrage from hardcore right-wing Christians, and those who did manage to buy the shoes when they were briefly on sale were asked to return them.

“I don’t think anyone actually returned them,” Lil Nas X said. “I can’t even get any more for my siblings and stuff, and so that sucks with the cancellation and what not, but I got my own pair so that’s good.” He also briefly touched upon his experiences learning to pole dance, and said it took two weeks of training, plus some bleeding on his legs, before he was able to film the video.