Joyner Lucas is one artist who has an issue with Lil Nas X’s new music video or “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name).”
On Sunday (March 28), the “Stranger Things” emcee took to Twitter to share his opinions on the new visuals, which included imagery of the “Old Town Road” rapper soaring through the air, riding a stripper pole into hell and giving the devil a lap dance.
“That @LilNasX video is wild, but as an artist, he doing everything he supposed to do,” Joyner tweeted. “Creating viral moments, making people talk & creating content he already knew you were going to react to. It’s a formula guaranteed to work. I doubt he actually worships the devil.”
“I think the biggest problem for me is the fact he doesn’t understand ‘Old Town Road’ is every kid’s anthem,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet. “Children love him for that record. They tuned in and subscribed to his channels. So, with no disclaimer, he just dropped some left-field ish & all our kids seen it. Smh.”
Lil Nas X responded back to Joyner’s tweets, alleging that his breakout single wasn’t an appropriate song for children to listen to either. “I literally sing about lean & adultery in ‘Old Town Road,’” he tweeted. “U decided to let your child listen. Blame yourself.”
Aside from the backlash, Lil Nas X is unbothered. “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” has already garnered over 36 million views on YouTube. On Instagram, he wrote a letter to his 14-year-old self about the track.
“Dear 14-year-old Montero, I wrote a song with our name in it,” he wrote. “I know we promised to never come out publicly, I know we promised to never be ‘that’ type of gay person, I know we promised to die with the secret, but this will open doors for many other queer people to simply exist.”
Check out Joyner and Lil Nas X’s exchange below.