In contemporary TV shows like “ Pose,” fashion lines like Hood by Air and Telfar, Frank Ocean and Tyler, the Creator’s candor about same-sex desire, and the queer rap underground of Le1f, Mykki Blanco and Cakes Da Killa, the strains of art that Lil Nas X absorbed have circulated above and below ground for generations. He’s making music videos essential again.”įrom Little Richard’s barely veiled appetites on “Tutti Frutti” to Sylvester’s celestial disco and the first waves of house music, to ballroom and vogueing culture percolating up through Madonna’s hits, Lil Nas X comes from a long tradition of Black queer music creating and remaking popular culture around it. Artists can get caught up in the industry where videos are just a way to sell music.

He has such a sense of humor, but he makes you examine your assumptions. “That’s why he’s so important right now, it’s so joyful and visually lush. “So often, we see subversive work like this not be pleasurable,” Kuhn said.

While foregrounding the Black male body - nude and dancing, cheekily pregnant or resplendent in a wedding dress - he makes his subversiveness look delightful, and his aesthetic bounty feel radical.