Lil Nas X has finally dropped his new single “Industry Baby” after first teasing it way back last year and folks, the music video is truly one for the ages.
The clip takes place inside a prison. If you haven’t already seen the teaser which parodies the rapper’s court case with Nike, best watch it beforehand.
Very quickly in the “Industry Baby” music video, noted power bottom Lil Nas X takes the gay prisoner trope and eviscerates it with a posse of Black, queer backup dancers who strut around the prison as if they run the joint.
One scene even cuts to the showers, where a fully-nude Nas (plus backup dancers) pull off choreo that almost feels too good for both pop and rap. There’s absolutely no need to drop the soap here.
There’s even a cameo from Teen Wolf star Colton Haynes, who plays a prison guard thirsting over Nas’ previous music video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” in his office. We love to see intertextuality in our music video plotlines.
Ok, ok, back to the song.
“Industry Baby” actually features fellow rapper Jack Harlow (who feels like an unnecessary addition) and was produced by Take a Daytrip and Kanye West.
With those kinds of production credits behind the scenes, it’s easy to see his sound has progressed from being already-great to, well, demonstrating this level of sheer mastery over music in general.
As with any Lil Nas X release, the rapper was keen to reshare some of the best memes from the drop.
https://twitter.com/javrawr/status/1418424715161579522
niggas watching the industry baby video pic.twitter.com/UtQu2XBrnK
— CZY (@thecozyboye) July 23, 2021
https://twitter.com/Drebae_/status/1418424664708108290
https://twitter.com/Rezorial/status/1418428436364865539
https://twitter.com/HolaDepot/status/1418424110405783554
it’s ok to just say the song is good sometimes guys lmao https://t.co/uwHfI9Scoo
— pussy (@LilNasX) July 22, 2021
The word cultural reset gets thrown around a lot – especially by gay stans! – but holy fuck this song and music video together constitute a massive fucking cultural reset if ever there was one.
Hearing Lil Nas X sing “I don’t fuck bitches, I’m queer” in what’s set to be one of the biggest songs of the year is goosebump-inducing.
As for the video, every frame euphemistically belongs in the Louvre. Realistically, a Black, queer institution that makes the Louvre look like a garage sale would be far more fitting.
It’s rare to see something so special and catchy and just all-round hypnotic emerge in mainstream music, and yet here we are witnessing it.
