[Feature image: Collin Leiby]
Lil Nas X’s face from his Montero music video is on a 36×36 wall in the Gayborhood to celebrate queer artists and queer people of color.
Lil Nas X has not only broken many impressive musical records, but he is also an influential visionary who has a strong voice on affairs of sexuality and perseveres despite criticism against him. He is a significant artist for our time. So no wonder Writers Block Rehab (located at 1342 Cypress St, Philadelphia, PA 19107) a lounge in the heart of the Gayborhood, commissioned a huge mural in his honor on their wall.
[Image: Collin Leiby]
Talented Philly artist Ash Ryan took a creative and unique spin on representing Lil Nas X. She says “I decided to pick three characters from the Montero (Call Me By Your Name) Music Video and portray each one in an ethereal, godly yet cherubic, otherworldly divinity within a celestial scene in my stylized colors. There needs to be more murals in the Gayborhood that provide reverence and beauty to the community.”
Indeed, Lil Nas X is a proud member of the LBGTQ+ community who also aspires to evolve the music industry to be more inclusive. His song entitles Montero (Call Me By Your Name) references the coming-of-age novel Call me By Your Name by Andre Aciman, which then became an acclaimed movie, is about romantic homosexual love that revolutionized the depiction of gayness on screen. His openness to sexuality is admirable and needs to be encouraged. Rich with gay themes, his goal with this song is to “normalize having these lines in songs the same way somebody might talk about […] opposite genders” he told Genius in an interview, “I feel like that’s really important for representation in general, and this is going to open more door.”