Although excitement for Lil Nas X’s upcoming debut album Montero is generally pretty high, some fans noticed that the tracklist the rising star shared was short on other Black artists — specifically, male ones. Nas addressed the non-controversy by pointing out that, rather than having an agenda, he was actually being shunned for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with two working brain cells to rub together to form a thought. However, he had one other artist in his corner in the form of Kid Cudi, who replied that he’d love to work with the “Old Town Road” singer.
maybe a lot of them just don’t wanna work with me https://t.co/AkEDNMMbkP
— ☆ (@LilNasX) September 1, 2021
Today, Nas was revealed as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2021 and to comment on the rulebreaker’s success, the magazine tapped none other than Cudi himself to write a glowing mini-profile. In it, he takes a step further than simply standing in solidarity with Lil Nas X, criticizing hip-hop for cultivating a culture of homophobia and predicting that Lil Nas will be part of a systemic change.
“When I saw the tweet about Nas’ album Montero not featuring Black male artists, and he replied that “maybe a lot of them just don’t wanna work with me,” that made me sad,” Cudi writes. “There’s a homophobic cloud over hip-hop, and he’s going to break that sh-t down. We have to stand with him. 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.”
You can read the full profile here.
