It’s no surprise that Lil Nas X made Time’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2021. It seemed you couldn’t go anywhere on the internet this year without seeing his name. Whether it was for his stellar music, provocative videos, or effortless expertise at clapping back at the haters — he was everywhere. What did come as a pleasant surprise was that fellow rapper Kid Cudi, who wrote the Time piece on Lil Nas X, took the opportunity to not only uplift his fellow artist but call out the “homophobic cloud over hip-hop” in the process. We love to see it.
Kudi began by sharing how, when he looks at Lil Nas X’s work, what he sees is common ground. “Lil Nas X is a new twist on some of the themes I was riding on when I first started out: being true to yourself and not giving a f-ck what anyone says,” wrote Cudi. “What he’s doing is what we need right now. To have a gay man in hip-hop doing his thing, crushing records — that is huge for us and for Black excellence. The way he’s unafraid to make people uncomfortable is so rock ’n’ roll. He’s a true rock star.”
He went on to share how saddened when he saw a tweet Lil Nas X wrote in response to a fan who pointed out that there were no black male guests on his forthcoming Montero album, that “maybe a lot of them just don’t wanna work with me.” At the time, Cudi responded that he was ready to “work w u and frolic in rose gardens w u singin about my pain.”
Cudi went even further in the Time article. “There’s a homophobic cloud over hip-hop, and he’s going to break that sh-t down. We have to stand with him,” he wrote. “I’m going to do whatever I have to do to let him know—you have my support. When we do our song together, however trippy the video is, let’s get sexy with it.”
That’s a promise we can't wait to see kept.
