(Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)
Lil Nas X recently announced his upcoming album, Montero. Now, fans are getting a peek into the debut project with a new single, “INDUSTRY BABY” featuring Jack Harlow.
The rapper posted a teaser for the single’s music video which shows X in court, with a lawyer and judge played by him as well, before cutting to the beginning of the song.
As a mockery of his recent legal troubles, the video follows suit with Lil Nas’ track record of making light of the difficult situations he finds himself in.
Over the last couple of weeks, Lil Nas X claimed on TikTok on Twitter that he could be going to jail due to a Nike lawsuit in response to X’s controversial launch of his “Satan Shoes” back in March. The red and black sneakers, which were adorned with a bronze pentagram, and contained a drop of real human human blood in the sole, almost exactly resembled Nike’s popular Air Max 97 shoe, sparking the suit.
The rapper’s social media claims caused a stir in his fans, tossing out hashtags like #FREELILNASX and #NIKEvsLILNASX.
Only, Lil Nas X wasn’t the actual defendant in the case; MSCHF, the New York-based art collective that partnered with the rapper to produce the shoes, was. And Nike and MSCHF settled the suit months ago.
However, Lil Nas X, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, has been praised for his use of social media to self-promote, and turned the situation into a genius ad strategy for “INDUSTRY BABY,” his new single with Jack Harlow, once again reclaiming his power after facing backlash and death threats for his single, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” and and the shoe drop that accompanied it.
“Get you soldiers, tell ‘em I aint layin low/ You was never really rootin for me anyway/ When I’m back up at the top I wanna hear you say/ “He don’t run from nothin’, dog,” X raps over a beat co-produced by Take a Daytrip and Kanye West, an apparent response to those who’ve judged the rapper since his coming out in 2019.
The video is currently trending at #1 for music on YouTube and is streaming on all platforms.